New Delhi: Even though India's COVID-19 tally increased to 25,89,682 with a single-day spike of 63,490 cases on Sunday (August 16, 2020), its coronavirus Case Fatality Rate (CFR) remained one of the lowest across the world as it dropped to 1.93 per cent.
The COVID-19 death count increased to 49,980 with 944 people succumbing to the disease in the last 24 hours, while 53,322 patients recovered and were discharged in the same time period.
The total number of recoveries on Sunday increased to 18,62,258, taking the recovery rate to 71.91 per cent.
"This is a result of coordinated efforts of the Centre and State/UT governments which has led to a continuous decline in the Mortality Rate. There has been sustained focus of the Union and the State/UT governments on improved and effective clinical treatment in hospitals, supervised home isolation, use of non-invasive oxygen support, and improved services of the ambulances for ferrying patients for prompt and timely treatment," stated Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
They added, "Tireless efforts of ASHA workers have ensured effective surveillance and tracking the progress of the patients in supervised home isolation. Clinical management skills of doctors treating COVID-19 patients have been upgraded by active technical guidance through tele-consultation sessions by domain knowledge experts from AIIMS, New Delhi. These measures have collectively ensured seamless and efficient patient management from home to hospital for critical and severe patients. This has ensured that India’s Case Fatality Rate (CFR) is maintained below the global average."
Notably, the USA that has been the worst-hit country across the world crossed 50,000 deaths in 23 days, while Brazil touched it in 95 days and Mexico in 141 days.
As of Sunday morning, there are 6,77,444 active cases across India, which is 26.16% of the total positive cases.
India has so far conducted 2,93,09,703 COVID tests, of which, 7,46,608 tests were done in the last 24 hours.
"This has been made possible by a rapidly growing national network of diagnostic labs which comprises 969 labs in the government sector and 500 private labs, adding up to 1469," said MoHFW.
