New Delhi: The doubling time of coronavirus cases in India has improved to 15.4 days from 13.3 days, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday, as the country's COVID-19 death toll climbed to 4,971 and the total cases rose to 1,73,763.
As many as 11,264 COVID-19 patients have been cured in the last 24 hours till Saturday 8am, the highest number of recoveries recorded in one day, pushing India's recovery rate to 47.40 per cent, it said.
However, the country registered a record single-day spike of 265 deaths and 7,964 cases till Saturday 8 am, according to the ministry. India is the now the ninth worst-hit nation by the pandemic.
While the number of active COVID-19 cases stood to 86,422, a total of 82,369 coronavirus infected patients have recovered so far.
"During the last 24 hours, a total of 11,264 COVID-19 patients have been cured. This is the highest number of recoveries recorded in a day. This has resulted in a recovery rate of 47.40 pc amongst COVID-19 patients, an increase of 4.51 per cent, from the previous day's recovery rate of 42.89 per cent," the health ministry said.
Owing to the high number of recovered patients, the number of active patients has also declined from 89,987 patients on May 29 to 86,422 active cases presently, the ministry said in a statement adding all the patients are under active medical supervision.
"As on May 30, the doubling time in the past 14 days was 13.3, it has improved to 15.4 days in the last three days. The fatality rate stands at 2.86 per cent," the statement said.
As on May 29, 2.55 per cent of the active COVID-19 patients are in the ICU, 0.48 per cent on ventilators and 1.96 per cent are on oxygen support.
The testing capacity has increased in the country through 462 government laboratories and 200 private laboratories.
Cumulatively, 36,12,242 tests have been done so far for COVID-19, whereas, 1,26,842 samples were tested yesterday, the ministry said.
As far as the health infrastructure in the country for management of COVID-19 is concerned, 942 dedicated COVID hospitals with 1,58,908 isolation beds, 20,608 ICU beds and 69,384 oxygen supported beds are available as of now.
Also, 2,380 dedicated COVID Health Centres with 1,33,678 Isolation beds; 10,916 ICU beds and 45,750 oxygen supported beds have been operationalised.
Besides,10,541 quarantine centres and 7,304 COVID Care Centres with 6,64,330 beds are presently available to combat COVID-19 in the country.
The Centre has also provided 119.88 lakh N95 masks and 96.14 lakh Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to the states, UTs and central Institutions.
The ministry reiterated that all precautions must be taken while "living with the new normal" of COVID-19.
It is imperative that all guidelines on physical distancing are followed at public places and workplaces, hand hygiene including frequent hand washing and respiratory hygiene is maintained, mask or face covers are used in public places and coughing/respiratory etiquettes are followed, it said.
"It is highlighted that the management of COVID-19 is only possible when all the due care is taken by everyone without being complacent about the situation and by not taking the relaxations during the lockdown situation for granted," the ministry underlined.
State-wise data
Maharashtra remained the worst hit with a total of 62,228 cases of which 33,133 are active, 2,098 persons have succumbed to the disease while 26,997 have recovered and have been discharged.
Tamil Nadu is the next worst hit with number of cases totalling 20,246 and the national capital having the third highest cases with a total of 17,386 cases.
Gujarat reported 15,934 cases, Rajasthan 8,365, Madhya Pradesh 7,645 and Uttar Pradesh 7,284.
Cases have spiked in the North East too, with Assam having 895 active cases.
Other States and UTs which have also reported steady increase are West Bengal which has 4,813 cases, Telangana (2,425), Punjab (2,197), Jammu and Kashmir (2,164), Bihar (3,376) and Andhra Pradesh (3,436).
According to the John Hopkins University (JHU) data, India had overtaken Turkey and is the ninth most affected nation in terms of COVID-19 cases after the US, Brazil, Russia, UK, Spain, Italy, France and Germany.
ICMR study
At least 28 per cent of 40,184 people, who had tested positive for COVID-19 between January 22 and April 30 in India, were asymptomatic, a study showed amid concerns about the novel coronavirus being spread by those who show mild or no symptoms.
Large proportions of both those tested and those found positive were asymptomatic contacts, according to the study by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) scientists along with other collaborators.
Healthcare workers constituted about 5.2 per cent of the total infected, according to the study published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research (IJMR) on Friday evening.
The study came at a time when the apex health research body ICMR is conducting a sero-survey to estimate the prevalence of community transmission of the infection among the Indian population.
People from 70 districts will be tested for COVID-19 at random to check whether they have developed antibodies against the infection even though they remained asymptomatic.
According to the study published in the IJMR, of the 28.1per cent asymptomatic patients, 25.3 per cent were direct and high-risk contacts of the positive cases, while 2.8 per cent were healthcare workers in contact with confirmed cases without adequate protection.
"However, the proportion of the asymptomatic infected people could be much more than the 28.1per cent and this is a cause of concern for us," Manoj Murhekar, director of the ICMR's National Institute of Epidemiology and one of the authors of the study, said.
The findings stated that the proportion of confirmed cases was highest among asymptomatic contacts, two-three-fold higher than among those with severe acute respiratory infection (SARI), those with an international travel history or healthcare workers, Murhekar said.
Between January 22 and April 30, a total of 10,21,518 people were tested for severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2).
Testing increased from about 250 individuals per day in the beginning of March to 50,000 by the end of April. Overall, 40,184 (3.9 per cent) tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
In this study, an analysis of the laboratory surveillance data was done to describe the testing performance and descriptive epidemiology of COVID-19 cases by time, place and person.
The attack rate (per million) by age was highest among those aged 50-69 years (63.3) and was lowest among those under 10 years (6.1).
The attack rate was higher among men as 41.6 of them tested positive, while 24.3 of the women contracted the infection.
Coronavirus cases were reported from 523 of the 736 (71.1 per cent) districts in the country.
States with the highest proportion of districts reporting positive cases included Delhi, Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.
States/UTs with the highest test positivity are Maharashtra (10.6 pc), Delhi (7.8 pc), Gujarat (6.3 pc), Madhya Pradesh (6.1 pc) and West Bengal (5.8 pc).
Among the 12,810 cases with reported symptoms at the time of specimen collection, cough and fever were the most commonly-reported symptoms, while around one-third of cases reported sore throat and breathlessness.
Gastrointestinal symptoms such as abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea were reported by less than five per cent of cases, the study stated.
With implementation of the ICMR's laboratory-based surveillance for the coronavirus, testing was available and accessible, and thus contributed to improved case detection throughout the country, the study underlined.
The network of COVID-19 testing laboratories and testing capacity continues to expand.
"While the cumulative number of cases continues to increase, the growth rate of reported cases has slowed," it said.
