COVID-19 continues to trouble India as Centre revises treatment protocol for patients
New Delhi: India on Saturday detected 22,771 fresh cases of novel coronavirus, the highest in a single day so far, taking the total number of cases to 6,48, 315. The country has also registered 442 new deaths, with overall fatalities soaring to 18, 655. The total number of the recovered people continues to increase steadily, with the recovery rate now standing at 60.81 per cent.
During the last 24 hours, 14,335 patients have been discharged, taking the cumulative figure to 3,94,226. There are 2,35,433 active cases under medical supervision. During the last 24 hours 2,42,383 samples have been tested, pushing the total number of tests conducted to 95,40,132.
Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu continue to report very high numbers. The Delhi on Saturday recorded 2,505 fresh cases, stretching its total to 97,200. In addition, 55 new deaths were registered in the city as overall fatalities crossed 3,000.
In a bid to check rising COVID infections in the state, all flights to Kolkata from high prevalence six cities – Pune, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Nagpur and Ahmedabad – will remain suspended from July 6 till July 19 at the request of West Bengal government. West Bengal so far has 20,488 coronavirus cases.
With novel coronavirus cases in India on a sharp rise and number of deaths too increasing, Union health ministry has revised its clinical management protocol and asked doctors to treat COVID-19 patients with investigational therapies that include Remdesivir, Convalescent Plasma, Tocilizumab and Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ).
Since these drugs are available in limited numbers at present, the ministry has said they should only be used in a defined sub-group of patients. While recommending a five-day course of Remdesivir for hospitalized patients, the ministry said that the drug is only for restricted emergency use on patients with moderate disease who are on oxygen support. It cannot be administered to pregnant or lactating women, children below the age of 12, patients with severe renal impairment.
The ministry has advised early use of HCQ in the disease course to achieve meaningful effects and should be avoided in patients with severe diseases. Similarly, Tocilizumab can be given to patients with moderate infection with progressively increasing oxygen requirements.
In its revised home isolation guidelines, the health ministry has allowed mild, very mild and asymptomatically patients to be declared fit after 10 days instead of usual 14 days if they do not develop fever after Day 3 or show any other major signs of COVID-19.
