COVID Case Fatality Rate (CFR) in India climbs to 2.28%

India continues to create new records on a daily basis with regard to new cases of novel coronavirus. As per Monday morning data of the union health ministry, total fresh cases detected in the last 24 hours were 49, 931 while 703 new deaths were recorded taking India’s total tally to 14, 35, 453 cases and 32, 771 deaths. However, by evening the overall numbers were close to 14.52 lakhs, and deaths close to 33,000 according to COVID19India.org.

Officials said more tests are leading to higher detection of infections. To ramp up testing further, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched “High Throughput” COVID-19 testing facilities at Kolkata, Mumbai and Noida.

PM said that these hi-tech testing facilities will boost the testing capacity by almost 10,000 daily tests in each of the three cities and more number of tests will assist early detection and treatment, thereby helping fight the spread of the virus. He added that these labs will not be limited to testing for COVID, but in future, will also be able to test for Hepatitis B and C, HIV, Dengue and several other diseases. These labs will reduce turn-around-time and exposure of lab personnel to infectious clinical materials.

PM said more than 5 lakh tests are being conducted in the country daily, and efforts are underway to increase this capacity to 10 lakh in the coming weeks. He underlined that the recovery rate in India is higher than other countries and is improving on a daily basis. He added that India has significantly improved health infrastructure to tackle the deadly virus, and the country now has more than 11,000 COVID facilities and more than 11 lakh isolation beds.

Union health ministry officials said India’s Case Fatality Rate is progressively falling and currently it is 2.28%. The number of recoveries too is increasing by each day and for the fourth consecutive day more than 30,000 recoveries have been recorded which has taken the total recoveries beyond 9 lakh. The number of recovered as per ministry currently stands at 9,17,567 and the Recovery Rate is 64%. While active cases are 4, 85, 114.

Meanwhile, Delhi, which had an alarming situation till a month back with close to 4,000 cases on Monday provided some ray of hope as it detected 613 fresh cases and 26 deaths. The health ministry is now trying to replicate Delhi’s success model in other states as well.