India's COVID-19 recoveries cross 65 lakh; 62,212 new cases recorded

New Delhi: India’s tally of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) stood at 7.4 million on Saturday after 62,212 fresh infections were reported from across the country in the last 24 hours, the Union health ministry data showed. Deaths from Covid-19 infections rose by 837 to 112,998, the health ministry said.

There were 70,816 patients of the coronavirus disease who were cured between Friday and Saturday, taking the number of recoveries in the second worst-hit country to 6,524,595, according to the health ministry’s dashboard at 8am. The national recovery rate is now 87.78%

The health ministry has said that India continues to report one of the lowest deaths per million population which was 81 on Friday. It sad that there have less than 1,100 deaths since October 2. “These results are boosted by 22 States/UTs which had demonstrated better performance and are reporting even lower deaths per million compared to the national average. The case fatality rate has been on the downslide continuously. At the current figure of 1.52%, it is the lowest since 22nd March 2020,” it said in a statement on Friday.

It also said that there has been a sharp focus of the Centre on not only containing the spread of the coronavirus disease, “but to reduce deaths and to save lives by providing quality clinical care to the critical and severe patients of COVID”.

“Collaborative efforts of the Union and State/UT governments have resulted in the strengthening of the health facilities across the country. 2212 Dedicated COVID Hospitals are providing quality medical care. The Central Government has also issued the Standard of Care guidelines incorporated in the Clinical Treatment Protocol which has ensured the standardized quality of medical care for all COVID patients in the government and private settings,” it added.

There are 795,087 active cases in the last 25 hours, the health ministry’s dashboard also showed, as the gap between recovered and active cases has crossed 5,729,508. The recovered cases are eight times more than the active case now, which the ministry has said are “sliding continuously”.

On Friday, 78% of the recovered cases were concentrated in 10 states and Union territories with Maharashtra alone contributing the maximum with more than 13,000 single day recovery. And, 79% of the new cases were from 10 states and Union territories on Friday. Maharashtra continued to be the state reporting a very high number of new cases with more than 10,000 cases followed by Karnataka with more than 8,000 cases.

Of the 895 deaths on Friday, nearly 82% are concentrated in 10 states and Union territories of Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Odisha and Delhi, the health ministry said. More than 37% of new fatalities are reported are from Maharashtra with 337 deaths, it added.

Thirteen states and Union territories are reporting deaths per million population more than the national average.

India is the second worst-hit country in the world after the United States, which has 8,048,724 cases of the coronavirus disease. Globally, 39,266,777 people have contracted the viral disease and 1,103,509 have died, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s Covid-19 tracker.