Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sep 24: Bringing a new hope that India may finally be on the verge of triumph over the Coronavirus, at least in the current round, the country recorded more recoveries than the new cases for the sixth consecutive day on Thursday. In the last 24 hours till 8 A.M. on Thursday, India recorded 87,374 recoveries as against the new confirmed cases of 86,508.
An official spokesman of the central health department said with its focussed strategies and effective people-centric measures, India was reporting exponential increase in recoveries.
New recoveries in India have exceeded the new cases for the last six days. “This was the result of focus on testing, tracing, treatment, surveillance and clear messaging, as highlighted by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his review meeting with seven high focus States/UTs on Wednesday,” the spokesman said.
With this, the total number of recoveries has reached 46.7 lakh (46,74,987) and the recovery rate stood at 81.55%.
In the last six days, beginning from September 19, new recoveries exceeded the new cases registered steadily reducing the number of active cases in the country. While on September 19, the number of patients recovered and discharged from the hospitals was 95,880 as against 93,337 new cases were registered, the figures for the next four days were 94,612 against 92,605 new cases, 93,356 recovered against 86,961 new cases, 101468 against 75,083 new cases, 89,746 against 83,347 and on Thursday the country recorded 87,374 recoveries against 86,508 new cases.
“As India records more recoveries than the new cases, the gap between Recovered Cases and the Active Cases is continuously widening. The recovered cases (46,74,987) exceed the active cases (9,66,382) by more than 37 lakh. This has also ensured that the active caseload accounts for merely 16.86% of the total positive cases. This has sustained on its steady declining path,” the spokesman claimed.
The spokesman pointed out that the states and UTs with higher number of positive cases also naturally showed more new recoveries. Nearly 74% of the New Recovered cases were found in 10 states and UTs with Maharashtra, the worst-hit in the pandemic, maintaining the lead with 19,476 cases (22.3%) for the sixth consecutive day, followed by Andhra Pradesh with 8,291 and Uttar Pradesh with 6,506 recoveries. Karnataka (5,460), Tamil Nadu (5,363), Chhattisgarh (4,772), Delhi (4,465), Odisha (4,052), West Bengal (2,998) and Kerala (2,951) also recorded impressive recoveries.
The spokesman said higher recovery had become possible because of the centre-led proactive and calibrated strategy of TEST TRACK TREAT for the early detection of the virus, termed as “Chase the Virus” approach. “Early identification through high & aggressive testing, prompt surveillance & tracking combined with high quality medical care through Standard of Care protocol issued by the Centre has aided the high number of recoveries,” the spokesman maintained.
Complementing the efforts of the local administrations and many voluntary organisations, the spokesman said there had been sustained focus of the Union and State/UT governments on improved and effective clinical treatment in hospitals, supervised home isolation, use of non-invasive oxygen support, use of steroids, anticoagulants, and improved services of the ambulances for ferrying patients for prompt and timely treatment. Tireless efforts of ASHA workers have ensured effective surveillance and tracking progress of the patients in supervised home isolation
He said the ‘eSanjeevani’ digital platform had enabled telemedicine services which had been successful in containing the spread of COVID while simultaneously enabling provisions for non-COVID essential healthcare. “The Centre has focussed on building the clinical management capacities of the doctors manning the ICUs. The ‘National e-ICU on COVID-19 Management’ exercises conducted by domain experts from AIIMS, New Delhi have substantially helped in this. 20 such sessions with 278 Institutions and Centers of Excellence have been conducted in 28 States/UTs,” the spokesman said.