BackCovid-19: India surpasses Russia to reach third spot among worst-hit countries
A sigh of relief is being provided by 60% recovery rate and decreasing positivity rate along with low fatalities since March amid the severe rise of pandemic across the worldCurrently, India's national positivity rate stands at 6.73%
PremiumNEW DELHI : India on Monday surpassed Russia and reached third spot among the worst coronavirus hit countries, with 697,413 covid-19 cases. While India left behind Russia (686,777), it is now only behind Brazil (1,603,055) and the USA (2,888,729) in covid-19 burden.
Globally, the number of covid-19 cases crossed 11,474,998 and deaths reached the mark of 534,825. At the same time, India is having an impressive recovery rate of over 60% while the positivity rate is decreasing. Some states are having a positivity rate lower than the national average.
“While India has reached number three in total caseload, the comforting fact is the high recovery rate of over 60% and low fatality rate,"’said Himanshu Sikka,Lead - Health, Nutrition & WASH, IPE Global, an international healthcare development consulting firm.
India is at number eight in terms of total covid-19 deaths, and with 14 deaths per million population at 103 position.
“A lot of credit for this goes to the decisive lockdown done in early stages of the epidemic. However, as India opens further all stakeholders need to work collectively to ensure that gains so far don’t get eroded and we continue the low doubling rate and high recovery rates,"’said Sikka.
The Centre has said that the government has emphasized on increasing testing, prompt contact tracing and timely clinical management of the cases. It has also helped the States to significantly ramp up testing capacities which has resulted in reduced positivity in the country. Currently, the national positivity rate stands at 6.73%, the union health ministry said in a statement.
As of 5th July, India has a positive rate of 6.73% at rate of 6,859 tests per million. The States with their Positivity Rate lesser than the national average and tests per million higher than the national average are Puducherry (5.55), Chandigarh (4.36), Assam (2.84), Tripura (2.72), Karnataka (2.64), Rajasthan (2.51), Goa (2.5) and Punjab (1.92).
In Delhi, the Centre said that the efforts being made by the union territory were significantly bolstered by the Central Government to ensure increase in testing. Tests were ramped up through increased RT-PCR testing along with the new Rapid Antigen Point-of-Care (POC) tests which gives results in only about 30 min.
“The average number of samples being tested per day which was only 5481 (1st-5th June 2020) has witnessed a huge increase to reach an average of 18,766 samples per day between 1st to 5th July 2020," the union health ministry said in a statement.
“In spite of significantly increased testing in Delhi, the positivity rate has seen a substantial decrease from about 30% to 10% in the last three weeks," the ministry said.
Meanwhile the number of covid-19 tests has crossed the 10 million (1 crore) milestone, the union health ministry said on Monday. During the last 24 hours 3,46,459 samples have been tested. The cumulative number of samples tested, as of now is 1,01,35,525.
As of now, more than 1105 labs have enabled people to undergo covid-19 tests. There are 788 labs in the government sector and 317 private labs.
“While mortality has been kept under check as compared to many other countries, growing numbers, spreading to more parts of the country, is a cause of concern and needs immediate addressal," said Dr Ravi Gaur, Member, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) Health Services Committee and COO, Oncquest labs.
Meanwhile on Monday, the National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organization (NATMO) functioning as a subordinate department under the Ministry of Science & Technology published the 4th updated version of covid-19 Dashboard. The updated version has special attributes like a single Map Window through which a user may get a wide range of information related with covid-19. It has Covid-19 Statistics such as confirmed cases, recovered, deceased, rate of recovery, and rate of death information have been given state and district wise, while the health facilities Information like – Hospitals, Test Labs, Blood Banks also shown on the same map frame. Users may also find individual health facility info at a higher zoomed level. Some useful information to common people like address, categories, and city locations have been indicated with info tool. The cartographic preferences for data visualization has been considered and adopted to ensure easily interpretable data visualization.
NATMO took an initiative to host its covid-19 Dashboard on 14th April 2020 under the guidance of Geospatial Group, Department of Science & Technology, to create a single-window platform to integrate all Government Department data including covid-19 combat initiatives.
Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!
