There are more patients who have recovered from COVID-19 in
the country than active cases currently, the Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare (MoHFW) said on Thursday while adding that there is no community
transmission of the pandemic in India yet.
New Delhi: There are more patients who
have recovered from COVID-19 infection in the country than active cases
currently, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) said on Thursday
while adding that there is ''no community transmission of the pandemic in India
yet.''
Lav Agrawal, Joint
Secretary, MoHFW also said that the recovery rate in the country currently
stands at 49.21 percent during a press conference, which he said is a ''good
sign.'' "Today, our recovery rate is 49.21 per cent. The number of
patients recovered presently exceeds the number of active patients,"
Agarwal said.
As
of Thursday, there are 1,37,448 active cases while 1,41,028 patients have been
cured and discharged in the country. Meanwhile, 8,102 deaths have also been
reported due to the infection so far.
Meanwhile, the Indian
Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director-General, Balram Bhargava, said that
there is no community transmission of COVID-19 at the national level yet. He
added that the lockdown measures have helped in controlling the spread of the
deadly virus until now.
"There
is a heightened debate on community transmission. WHO has not given a
definition on it. India is such a large country and the prevalence is so low.
The prevalence is less than one per cent in small districts. It is slightly
higher in the urban areas. In the containment areas, it may be slightly higher.
But, we are definite that India is not in community transmission,"
Bhargava said at the daily press briefing.
"I
would like to emphasise that it is not in community transmission," he
said.
The ICMR chief, however,
said they have to continue with the strategy of testing, tracing, tracking and
quarantine. He also stressed on the need to continue with the containment
measures, saying "we have found success with those measures until
now".
It
may be noted that India on Thursday recorded the highest single-day spike of
9,996 new infections and 357 fatalities due to COVID-19 infections.
India's
first sero-survey on COVID-19 spread has found that lockdown and containment measures
were successful in preventing a rapid rise in infections, but a large
proportion of the population still remains susceptible, ICMR Director-General
said.
The sero-survey has two
parts - estimating the fraction of the population that has been infected with
SARS-CoV-2 in the general population and estimating the fraction of population
that has been infected with the coronavirus in containment zones of hotspot
cities, Bhargava said.
The
first part has been completed and the second is ongoing, he said, adding that
the survey was conducted in May by the ICMR in collaboration with state health
departments, the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the World
Health Organisation (WHO).
Bhargava
said the study involves surveying a total of 83 districts with 26,400 people
enrolling for it and 28,595 households visited. The slides that were shared
with the media stated that data from 65 districts has been compiled till now
and the data is based on incidence of reported COVID-19 cases as on April 25.
The
sero-survey has found that 0.73 per cent of the population in the districts
surveyed had evidence of past exposure to SARS-CoV-2 , Bhargava said.
"Lockdown and containment (measures) have been successful in keeping it
low and preventing rapid spread," he said, citing the survey.
His
remarks came on a day India saw the highest single-day spike of 357 fatalities
and 9,996 cases, pushing the death toll to 8,102 and the nationwide tally to
2,86,579.
According
to Union Health Ministry data, the country has registered over 9,500 cases for
the seventh day in a row, while the figure for casualties crossed the 300-mark
for the first time. The number of recoveries are more than the active
novel coronavirus cases for the second consecutive day.
The
ministry said the number of active cases stands at 1,37,448 till Thursday 8 am,
while 1,41,028 people have recovered, and one patient has migrated.