Health Ministry claims recovery rate of more than 20% is “comparatively better” than most countries.

India posted 1,429 new cases of COVID-19 since Friday. This brings the total number of those confirmed positive to 24,506 according to an update by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

At least 56 more deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the toll across the country to at least 779, according to the Union Health Ministry figures.

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The country’s death rate, according to the Ministry, was around 3.1% and the recovery rate more than 20%, which, it claimed, was “comparatively better” than most of the countries and could be attributed to the success of the lockdown as well as the containment strategy. The average doubling rate — the number of days taken for cases to double — of the country was 9.1 days.

Though fresh cases were reported from Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh among other places, the government said the daily growth rate has dipped to 6%.

Maharashtra tops the tally with more than 6,800 cases, followed by 3061 in Gujarat and 2034 in Rajasthan.

According to reports from State Health Departments, however, the nationwide death toll was 800 with 19 fatalities since Friday. The number of positive cases was 25,252 with 18,742 active cases.

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GoM meeting

On Saturday, a high level meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19, chaired by Health Minister Harsh Vardhan took stock of the number of cases, and the country's preparedness.

As on date, more than one lakh units of personal protective equipment (PPE) and N-95 masks were being manufactured everyday in the country, a PIB release said. There are at present 104 domestic manufactures of PPE and three making N95 masks in the country. In addition, production of ventilators by domestic manufacturers has also started and orders have been placed for more than 59,000 units through nine manufacturers, the statement added.

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There were 92,000 non-governmental organisations, Self Help Groups and civil society organisations involved in providing food to the migrant workers across various States/UTs.

The GoM was also informed that a national level meta-data of health workers, NSS, NYK, NCC, doctors etc., has been prepared and shared to all the States, Districts and other officials, to mobilise the resources/volunteers (COVID warriors) to much needed locations.

The government claimed that it had prepared a database of 1.24 crore doctors, healthworkers and volunteers from volunteer organisations.

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“This is not only their fight, but our collective effort. They are our frontline warriors and as a nation, let us not only respect their contribution but ensure that their safety and dignity are protected too,” Dr. Harsh Vardhan stated.