The death toll due to COVID-19 continued to rise on Sunday, with the country registering a total of 826 fatalities and 26,917 cases, according to the Union Health Ministry. While the death toll rose by 46, the number of cases spiked by 1,975 since Saturday evening.
The number of active cases stood at 20,177, while 5,913 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the Ministry said. The total number of cases includes 111 foreign nationals, while 312 cases are being assigned to States for contact tracing.
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However, reports from the States put the total number of cases at 27, 579, out of which 20,274 are active. The nationwide death toll stood at 880, while 6,425 people have recovered.
Maharashtra accounts for the highest number of fatalities, followed by Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, and Andhra Pradesh.
“Through a graded, pre-emptive and pro-active approach, the Central government is taking several steps along with the States/Union Territories for prevention, containment and management of COVID-19. These are being regularly reviewed and monitored at the highest level,” said Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday.
‘Situation improving’
Speaking after a visit to the Trauma Centre of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences here to take stock of COVID-19 preparedness, he noted that 5,913 people have recovered, with a recovery rate of 21.9%. “The situation is improving in India as Hotspot Districts are moving towards becoming Non Hotspot Districts,” said the Minister.
Dr. Vardhan said people should observe the lockdown in letter and spirit and treat it as an effective intervention to cut down the spread of COVID-19.
The Minister said the doubling rate had been showing regular improvement and stood at 10.5 days when seen over a period of 3 days, 9.3 days over a period of 7 days and 8.1 days over a period of 14 days. “These indicators may be be taken as positive effects of the lockdown along with the cluster management and containment strategies,” he said.
Dr. Vardhan said, “As on date, 283 districts have not reported any COVID cases till date, 64 districts have not reported a fresh case since the last 7 days, 48 districts have not reported a fresh case since the last 14 days, 33 districts have not reported a fresh case since the last 21 days and 18 districts have not reported a fresh case since the last 28 days.”
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On the status of availability of medical equipment and facilities in the country, Dr. Vardhan said the government had already made available sufficient quantities of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) at the State level. “Now we have around 106 manufacturing units which are capable of making them in India itself which will be enough to meet the increasing requirement of our country in future.”
“There are now 10 manufacturers of N-95 masks in the country,” he said
Speaking about the availability of ventilators, he said, “Through the efforts of the government and our various research labs, the production of ventilators by domestic manufacturers has also started and orders have been placed for more than 59,000 units through 9 manufacturers.”
Elaborating on the adequacy of the ventilators, oxygen supplies and ICUs that have been made available by the Centre and the States, he said “When we compare the number of active patients who are currently hospitalised, we find that only 2.17% patients have been admitted to ICU, 1.29% patients have required oxygen support and mere 0.36% are on ventilator.”
“We are winning the battle and eventually we will win this war against COVID-19 as we know our enemy, its numbers and its proper whereabouts and we are prepared to deal with any situation” noted the Minister.
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Meanwhile, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Sunday had a videoconference with all the Chief Secretaries and DGPs of the States/UTs to review the preparedness for COVID-19 response.
“He highlighted that States which are having high case loads should focus on effective implementation of lockdown measures and containment strategy. States also need to focus on medical infrastructure which includes adequate availability of isolation beds, ICU beds and ventilators,” the release noted.
