The number of recoveries have overtaken the total COVID-19 active cases in India for the first time even as the country reported close to 10,000 new instances of the infection pushing the cumulative tally to over 2.86 lakh cases.
The surge in cases over the last few days has prompted the Union health ministry to send central teams to assist State health officials in reviewing the public health measures.
As many as 5,991 patients were cured of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. This takes the total number of patients recovered to 1,35,205, while the total number of active cases is now 1,33,632. For the first time, the total number of recovered patients has exceeded the active cases. The recovery rate now stands at 48.88%.Also, the number of tests conducted by ICMR has exceeded 50 lakhs; it stands at 50,61,332 today. In the last 24 hours, ICMR has tested 1,45,216 samples. ICMR has continued to ramp up the testing capacity for detecting the Novel Coronavirus in the infected persons. The number of government labs has been increased to 590 and private labs has been increased to 233 (a total of 823).
Central Teams are being deputed to provide technical support and handhold the State Health Departments and Municipal Health Officials to review public health measures being undertaken for COVID-19 in six cities of Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and Bengaluru.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has issued an order to all Health Care Organizations (HCOs) empanelled under CGHS. All CGHS empanelled hospitals, which are notified as COVID-Hospitals by State Governments, shall provide treatment facilities to CGHS beneficiaries as per the CGHS norms, for all COVID related treatments. Similarly, it is directed that all the CGHS empanelled hospitals, which are not notified as COVID Hospitals shall not deny treatment facilities / admission to CGHS beneficiaries and shall charge as per CGHS norms, for all other treatments. Action shall be taken in case of violation of the guidelines.
As many as 28 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel posted in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, officials said.
They said the personnel were found infected during a contact-tracing exercise after the death of a 44-year-old coronavirus-infected constable .