Covid-19 Bulletin: Recovery rate nears 91%, total tests cross 10.5 crore

New Delhi: Setting a significant milestone in fight against Covid-19, the national recovery rate has now reached 90.85%.

With overall recovery of nearly 72.60 lakh patients so far, recovered cases stand at nearly 12 times more than the active cases.

Nearly 59,000 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours while new confirmed cases stood at nearly 44,000. The active caseload of the country has also fallen below eight per cent.

Active cases comprise 7.64% of total positive cases

With focussed strategy and proactive as well as calibrated measures of the Union Government along with the States and UTs, India has sustained its global position of being the country with one of the lowest cases per million population and deaths per million population. While the global figure for cases/million is 5,552, India is recording 5,790. USA, Brazil, France, UK, Russia, and South Africa are reporting much higher numbers. The deaths per million populations in India are 87, substantially lower than the world average of 148. In the matter of total tests conducted, India is one of the topmost countries. With 10,66,786 tests in the last 24 hours, the cumulative number of tests conducted has crossed 10.5 Cr (10,54,87,680).

India continues to report a trend of steadily decreasing active cases. Presently the active cases comprise merely 7.64% of the total positive cases of the country standing at 6,10,803. The total recovered cases are 72,59,509. 43,893 new cases have been registered in the last 24 hours in the country whereas the new recovered cases stand at 58,439. 77% of the new recovered cases are in 10 States/UTs. 79% of new confirmed cases are from 10 States and UTs. Kerala has overtaken Maharashtra with the highest number of new reported cases. 508 case fatalities have been reported in the past 24 hours.

Health Ministry’s telemedicine service, eSanjeevani, completes 6 lakh tele-consultations

eSanjeevani, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s telemedicine initiative has completed 6 Lakh tele consultations. It took only 15 days to complete the last one lakh consultations. In what can be seen as a big push for the ‘Digital India’ initiative of the Prime Minister, the eSanjeevani digital platform has proved its usefulness and easy access for the caregivers and the medical community, and those seeking healthcare services in the times of COVID. States like Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Gujarat run eSanjeevani OPD for 12 hours a day and 7 days a week. It is a testimony to the fact that eSanjeevani is gradually gaining traction with patients and doctors. eSanjeevani is accessible to the population in 27 States/UTs across India. The digital platform provides eHealth services through more than 6000 doctors who man 217 online OPDs in patient to doctor telemedicine model i.e. eSanjeevaniOPD.

Piyush Goyal calls upon global community to ensure timely and equitable availability of vaccines

The Union Commerce and Industry Minister Shri Piyush Goyalh as called upon the global community to ensure timely and equitable availability of vaccines and medicines for COVID-19, in sufficient quantities and affordable prices. In his intervention at the virtual informal meeting of WTO Ministers held yesterday, he said that India and South Africa have proposed TRIPS waiver to address the challenges that countries with limited manufacturing capacity will face, in accessing these medical supplies. He called upon all Members to support the proposal, in order to have a decision on it by MC12, if not earlier. Shri Goyal said that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought out the inherent weaknesses and inequalities in the global economic & trading system. The need of the hour is to take effective measures to address the immediate challenges, and also prepare a long-term roadmap on how to reform an ailing and imbalanced global trading system.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan highlights need for long term solutions for management of biomedical waste

The Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr. Harsh Vardhan has underlined the need for long term solutions for management of biomedical waste so as to ease the pressure on Health and Environment, specifically in a pandemic like situation. His message was read out at a recent webinar. The high-level webinar on ‘The Future of Liquid Waste Management amidst COVID-19: What lies ahead?’ was jointly organized by the India Water Foundation (IWF) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) supported by the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India and Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti recently. The webinar focused on the future of liquid waste management and effective management of biomedical waste.