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Updated: Apr 28, 2020 21:44 IST

After almost 45 days since the first case of Covid-19 was detected in Uttarakhand, the infection rate has now reduced to almost 1% in Uttarakhand.

Yugal Kishore Pant, additional secretary for medical health in the state said on Tuesday that the rate of positive cases doubling in the state has now slowed to 28 days.

“Out of total samples tested only 1.03% samples have turned positive for Covid-19 in Uttarakhand which is lesser than the national average. Mortality rate so far for Covid-19 patients in the state is zero and none of the patients have had to be shifted to intensive care units (ICU) also during treatment,” said Pant.

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The recovery rate has also improved in the state from 56% and now stands at around 64% with 33 out of the 52 patients recovering successfully. The country’s recovery rate as of Tuesday evening stood at 23%.

“Not just improvement in the rate of recovery, the rate of doubling of positive cases in the state stands at approximately 28 days, with the health department testing 455 people for every ten lakh population,” Pant said.

Uttarakhand has so far tested over 5,000 samples with 52 positive cases have been reported.

On March 15, when the first positive case of Covid-19 was reported from Uttarakhand, the infection rate in the state stood at 5.88% which has gradually come down to 1.03%.

Anoop Nautiyal, founder of Social Development for Communities, a Dehradun-based think tank, who has been analysing Covid-19 data in the state said that the infection rate has been reducing due to increase in sampling.

“Since the past two weeks, the infection rate has been on a consistent decline in the state and that is mainly because of an increase in sampling in the state. With four testing centres divided between Garhwal and Kumaon, the situation is becoming clearer in the state,” said Nautiyal.