It said, a total of five lakh 71 thousand 460 people affected with coronavirus have recovered in the country so far. With this, the recovery rate in the country has reached 63.02 per cent. Presently, the total number of active corona cases in the country is three lakh 11 thousand 565.
Briefing media in New Delhi today, the Ministry said, India has 657 cases per million in comparison to the global average of one thousand 638 cases per million and India registered 17.2 deaths per million compared to the global average of 73 deaths per million. It said, the daily growth rate in new cases is showing a declining trend and it is now 3.24 per cent which was around 31 per cent in the March this year. The Ministry said, the case fatality rate also declined to 2.61 percent. It said, 30 States and Union Territories have the lowest fatality rate than the national average.
There are 20 States and Union Territories that have better recovery rate than the national average of 63.02 per cent. In terms of recovery rate, top five States and Union Territories are – Ladakh, Delhi, Uttrakhand, Chhattisgarh and Haryana wherein the recovery rate is above 75 per cent. 10 States and Union Territories have contributed 86 per cent in the total Covid-19 cases and 50 per cent of it alone came from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
Government has said that adequate testing is being done in the country to effectively deal with this crisis. There are 22 states in the country which are conducting 140 tests per day per million and overall 201 tests per day per million is being conducted in the country. Lab network has been ramped up to increase the testing and more than 14 hundred labs are conducting the Covid-19 test in the country.
The Health and Family Welfare Ministry said, States have been advised to keep a continued focus on containment, testing and clinical management. It said, increased testing will help in early detection of the cases and Covid appropriate behaviour and community ownership is necessary to contain the spread of this disease. On the question of higher prices of certain drugs used in the Covid-19 treatment, the Health Ministry said, the Drug Controller General of India has asked the companies to start helpline numbers for the people and publicize the distribution centres through their websites. In addition, the state governments have been asked to keep vigil on price hike of the drugs and ensure the supply of the medicines.
The Health Ministry said that a Sero Survey has been conducted in Delhi and 22 thousand 800 blood samples were collected from 26th June to 5th of July. It said, the report will be published soon as different kinds of stratification of the data is underway. On the question of nationwide wide lockdown, the Health Ministry clarified that strict measures have been imposed in certain containment areas as it has been found that easing of lockdown in the containment zones increases the number of cases. Indian Council of Medical Research said, India has fast tracked its efforts for the development of Covid-19 vaccines which are under human trial stage. It said, India is considered a pharmacy of the world and 60 percent of the vaccine at world level is supplied by the India. It said, it is the moral duty not to delay the process of vaccine development without compromising the ethical part as it is essential to break the chain of transmission. It said, the coronavirus affect several organs of the body like liver, kidney, heart and blood vessels and that’s why in most of the treatments it is recommended to give blood thinner or anticoagulants for preventing the complications.
ICMR said, in severe patients of Covid, there is problem of cytokine storm which leads to serious conditions. It said, there are two drugs which have been considered to stop the cytokine storm one is tocilizumab and other is itolizumab. These drugs have not yet demonstrated mortality reduction in the trials. On the reports of airborne transmission of the Covid-19, ICMR said that physical distancing is important to contain the spread of this virus.