Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Friday the next three months are going to be decisive in determining the trajectory of COVID-19 for the country.
“If we take adequate precaution and follow COVID appropriate behaviour in the coming festival and winter season, we will be in a better position to fight corona,” the Minister said while reviewing COVID-19 preparedness and measures for COVID-appropriate behaviour in Uttar Pradesh.
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The Minister said India has shown improvement over the last three months and “from recording over 95,000 COVID-cases in a day, the cases have been substantially reduced to less than 55,000 cases in a day. The Recovery Rate of India is nearing 90%. The Case Fatality Rate is also declining. CFR stands at 1.51% and is moving towards the target of having CFR less than 1%”, Dr Vardhan said.
He further added, “The number of active cases are less than 7 lakh and the doubling rate has increased to 97.2 days, as of now. The journey which started from having just one lab, we have come a long way in now having nearly 2,000 labs in the country. The number of total tests conducted across the country have surpassed 10 crore. This is a positive indication that we are moving in the right direction.”
For Uttar Pradesh Dr. Vardhan stressed that there is a need to focus on increasing testing, surveillance, contact tracing, and early diagnosis to keep fatality rate low.
Meanwhile, India has conducted a total of 10 crore (10,01,13,085) COVID-19 tests on Friday while conducting 14,42,722 tests on Thursday alone. The last one crore tests were conducted in nine days.
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“The country’s testing capacities have multiplied manifold with nearly 2000 labs across the country and with collaborative efforts of the Centre and State/UT governments. More than 15 lakh samples can be tested every day,” said a release issued by the Health Ministry.
It added that progressive countrywide expansion in testing infrastructure has played a crucial role in the steep rise of testing numbers. “With 1,989 testing labs in the country including 1,122 government laboratories and 867 private laboratories, the daily testing capacity has got a substantial boost,” it said.
The Ministry added that higher testing across wide regions has resulted in early identification of positive cases, prompt tracking through efficient surveillance and tracing, and timely & effective treatment in homes/facilities and in hospitals for the severe cases. These measures in tandem eventually lead to lower mortality rate.
