India’s recovery rate now at 31.15%, 20,917 people cured of Covid-19

India’s recovery rate now at 31.15%, 20,917 people cured of Covid-19

Mangalore Today News Network

Delhi, May 11, 2020: India’s recovery rate from the Covid-19 infection has now climbed to an encouraging 31.15% with 20,917 people having recovered across the country so far, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday. A total number of 1,559 patients have recovered from the infectious disease in the last 24 hours.

At least 4,213 Covid-19 positive cases and 97 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours till Monday morning, Hindustan Times reported.

 

The total number of coronavirus cases in India now stands at 67,152 and the death toll due to the deadly pathogen is currently 2,206, according to health ministry data.

Health Ministry officials began the daily news briefing with an appeal to citizens to come forward and report to healthcare facilities if they had Covid-19 symptoms to prevent the infection from spreading to their immediate family members, neighbours or others in the community. Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan has also been roped in to appeal to people to come forward if they noticed any coronavirus symptoms in themselves or their family members.

Earlier on May 8, the health ministry had issued a revised discharge policy for Covid-19 patients based on clinical severity and had tweaked the rules for discharge of such patients who would be released only after 2 RT-PCR tests conducted on them returned negative.

“The discharge policy has been changed because several countries have changed their policy from test-based strategy to symptom and time-based strategy. We have also changed it based on this,” Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary of the Health Ministry said.

According to the revised policy, mild or very mild or pre-symptomatic cases admitted to Covid Care facilities can be discharged after 10 days of the onset of symptoms and if there is no fever for three days.

“There is no need to test before discharge of the patient and home isolation of at least 10 more days is advised after discharge,” Agarwal said.

According to health ministry data, studies have suggested that the viral load in Covid-19 positive patients peaks in the pre-symptomatic period, at least two days before symptoms set in and reduces over the next seven days.

Chairman of Empowered Group 9 Ajay Sawhney said that the tracking mobile application—the Aarogya Setu app has also contributed significantly to India’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The Aarogya Setu app has been designed keeping in mind the privacy of people. Around 9.8 crore people have downloaded the app and it is available in 12 languages,” a government official said.

According to government officials, the Aarogya Setu app had provided information about 697 potential Covid-19 hotspots in the country and helped to curb the spread of the infection to other areas from these clusters.