India has so far about 0.2 COVID-19 deaths per lakh population as against the global figure of 4.1, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
During last 24 hours, a total of 2,350 COVID-19 patients have been cured. Thus, so far, a total of 39,174 patients have been cured of COVID-19. This means a recovery rate of 38.73% amongst COVID-19 patients. The recovery rate is improving continuously, the Ministry said.
India currently has 58,802 active cases. Of the active cases, only approx. 2.9% of the cases are in ICU, it said.
A record number of 1,08,233 samples were tested yesterday in the country. So far, a total of 24,25,742 samples have been tested, it said.
Referring to data from WHO situation report-119, the ministry said 3,11,847 COVID-19 deaths have been reported till date worldwide which is about 4.1 deaths per lakh population.
The US with 87,180 fatalities has 26.6 mortality per lakh population. The UK has reported 34,636 deaths and has 52.1 deaths per lakh population. Italy with 31,908 coronavirus fatalities so far has 52.8 deaths per lakh population. France has so far reported 28,059 casualties which is around 41.9 deaths per lakh population, it said.
Spain with 27,650 fatalities has about 59.2 deaths per lakh, while Brazil with 15,633 deaths has 7.5 mortality per lakh population.
China has recorded 4,645 casualties has approximately 0.3 deaths per lakh population.
On testing, the Ministry said from one laboratory conducting COVID-19 test in January, India has very rapidly increased its testing capacity by adding over 385 government laboratories and 158 private laboratories in the country.
“Duly forging partnerships with all central government labs, state’s medical colleges, private medical colleges and private sector, the testing capacity in the country has been expanded. Other testing machines like TrueNAT and CBNAAT have also been mobilized to ramp up testing,” it said.
Through 14 AIIMS-like mentor institutions, handholding of labs across the country is undertaken to ensure adequate bio-safety standards and accreditation of the laboratories. To maintain steady supply of testing material to the labs, 15 depots have been created by roping in India Posts and private agencies for distribution. Many Indian companies have been supported to undertake production of testing material which was earlier primarily sourced from abroad. This has helped in maintaining steady supplies across the country, it added.
