UPDATES ON COVID-19

Recovery rate of COVID positive cases continues to increase and is currently at 49.47%. A total of 1,47,194 individuals have been cured and recovered vis-a-vis 1,41,842 individuals who are under active medical supervision. 6,166 individuals have recovered of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours.

The doubling rate/time continues to improve and has increased from 3.4 days at the beginning of lockdown to 17.4 days currently.

Cabinet Secretary held a video conference with Chief Secretaries, Secretary Health and Secretary Urban Development of all the states.  States were advised to focus on containment, testing and tracing, health infrastructure up-gradation, case clinical management and community engagement for effective management of COVID-19.

States were asked to also pay special attention to the emerging epicentres and undertake stringent containment measures so as to check the spread of virus. States were advised that active house-to-house surveillance through Special Teams in containment zones is critical for early identification of cases. They were requested to expedite up-gradation of hospital infrastructure so as to manage the cases as per projections besides ensuring sufficient logistics (e.g. pulse oximeters), and trained human resources (doctors, staff nurses, non-clinical staff).

It was emphasized that going forward preventive measures are extremely important especially for vulnerable population i.e. elderly and co-morbid patients.  Timely referrals, based on symptoms and improving clinical practices with the help of Centres of Excellence in collaboration with AIIMS, Delhi was also stressed.  States were requested to undertake extensive community outreach to encourage social distancing and promotion of Covid appropriate behaviour in the community at all times.

ICMR has further ramped up the testing capacity for detecting the novel Coronavirus in infected persons. A total of 877 labs are presently operational (637- government labs & 240- private labs) in the country. 1,50,305 samples were tested in the last 24 hours. A total of 53,63,445 samples have been tested thus far.

For all authentic & updated information on COVID-19 related technical issues, guidelines & advisories please regularly visit:https://www.mohfw.gov.in/ and @MoHFW_INDIA .

Technical queries related to COVID-19 may be sent totechnicalquery.covid19@gov.inand other queries onncov2019@gov.in and @CovidIndiaSeva .

In case of any queries on COVID-19, please call at Ministry of Health & Family Welfare helpline no.: +91-11-23978046 or 1075 (Toll-free). List of helpline numbers of States/UTs on COVID-19 is also available athttps://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/coronvavirushelplinenumber.pdf.