India’s COVID-19 count on Thursday crossed two grim milestones of 10 lakh cases and 25,000 deaths, according to official data from states, even as the Centre said active cases now constituted one-third of the total infections.
The total coronavirus caseload stood at 10,00,202 while there were 25,553 deaths from the disease, according to a PTI tally at 9.30 pm based on reports from states and union territories. India is ranked third in the global COVID-19 tally after the US and Brazil.
According to the Union Health Ministry, India has 3,31,146 active COVID-19 cases, which is around a third of the country”s infection tally. It credited targeted measures for the steady decline in the active caseload.
The ministry data updated at 8 am on Thursday showed the country”s COVID-19 tally rose to 9,68,876 with a record single-day spike of 32,695 cases while the death toll climbed to 24,915 with 606 new fatalities.
It was for the fifth consecutive day that COVID-19 cases have increased by more than 28,000. The huge surge in cases has led several states to reimpose lockdown for varying periods.
Just two states — Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu — account for 48 per cent of the country”s total active caseload, the health ministry said. Ten states including Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu reported 84.62 per cent of the total active caseload, it said, adding the Centre continues to handhold these states in matters of containment and effective clinical management.
Maharashtra on Thursday recorded its highest single day spike of 8,641 new coroanvirus cases, taking the tally to 2,84,281, the state health department said.
With 266 new fatalities being recorded, the death toll due to the pandemic reached 11,194, it said in a statement.
Tamil Nadu”s tally of positive cases stood at 1,56,369 with the addition of 4,549 new cases, a health department bulletin said. The death toll stood at 2,236.
Delhi is the only other state or union territory to have over one lakh COVID-19 cases and it is in the third position with a tally of 1,18,645 while the death toll mounted to 3,545, authorities said.
This is the sixth consecutive day when fresh coronavirus cases have been reported in the national capital in the range of 1,000-2,000.
India”s first COVID-19 case was detected on January 30 in Kerala.
“Of the total COVID-19 cases, 63.25 per cent have recovered so far. Simultaneously, there has been a steady dip in the number of active cases, from around 45 per cent in mid-June to around 34.18 per cent as of now,” the health ministry said.
A total of 20,783 people have recuperated in the past 24 hours, the highest number of recoveries in a day, taking the total number of recovered cases to 6,12,814.
“Focus on early identification and clinical management is aiding recoveries in COVID-19 patients. Now, the recoveries exceed active cases by 2,81,669,” the ministry said.
The recoveries are 1.85 times the number of active cases, it added.
The ministry said the recovery rate rose to 50 per cent mid-June and thereafter there has been a steady rise in recoveries and a decline in the number of active cases.
The ministry said the actual caseload of COVID-19 has remained limited and manageable due to proactive containment measures such as house-to-house survey, perimeter control activities, timely contact tracing, aggressive testing and timely diagnosis, and effective clinical management of moderate and severe cases through a well-implemented standard of care protocol increasing their chances of recovery.
Hospital infrastructure includes 1,381 Dedicated COVID Hospitals, 3,100 Dedicated COVID Healthcare Centres and 10,367 COVID Care Centres with a total of 46,666 ICU beds.
“Collaborative strategy among the Centre and states has also ensured that the growth of COVID-19 cases is restricted to certain pockets of the country,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said that as per the “test, trace, treat” strategy, the central government is driving enhanced testing initiatives in states and union territories as a result, of which there has been a steady rise in the number of testing labs across the country.
The increased testing is in accordance with the Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR) guidelines and has helped in early detection of cases.
The testing includes the RT-PCR which is the golden standard of the COVID-19 testing. This has been augmented with Rapid Antigen Point of Care (POC) testing that gives results within half-hour.
“This has resulted in ramped up testing in the containment and buffer zones. This has significantly helped in controlling the spread of the infection,” the ministry said.
The ministry said that 3,26,826 samples have been tested for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. The cumulative number of 1,27,39,490 samples tested so far has translated to a figure of 9231.5 testing per million for India.
All registered medical practitioners can now recommend testing. This coupled with the facilitation of widespread testing by states and UTs through the RT-PCR, TrueNat and CBNAAT lab network has contributed to a surge in the number of samples tested, it said.
The testing lab network in the country is further strengthened with 1.234 labs in the country; 874 labs in the government sector and 360 private labs.
Joint efforts by the Centre, states and Union Territories to increase testing capacity, ramping up health infrastructure, prioritising surveillance in SARI/ILI cases, and ensuring mapping of the aged population and those with comorbidities have led to continuous improvement in recovery rates across India, the ministry added.