Coronavirus / No community transmission of COVID-19 in India: Health Minister

New Delhi: Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said in Thursday that though India has become the third most affected country by the Covid-19 pandemic, it is important to understand this in the correct perspective.

“We are a country with the second highest population in the world. Our cases per million are 538, while world average is 1,453,” Vardhan said.

Releasing the daily data on Covid-19 situation in the country, the health ministry said on Thursday that around 62.08 per cent of patients have recovered so far.

The health ministry’s Covid-19 dashboard showed the number of recoveries stands at 4,76,377 while there are 2,69,789 active cases of the disease in the country. Thus, the gap between the number of recovered cases and active cases has increased to 2,06,588.

Vardhan further said that there is no community transmission in India. “During our discussions today, experts again stated that there is no community transmission in India. There may be some localised pockets where transmission is high but as a country, there’s no community transmission,” the health minister said while addressing a press conference.

He chaired a Group of Ministers’ meeting to review, monitor and evaluate the evolving situation on Covid-19 in India.

On Wednesday, the health ministry had said that the rate of recovery among Covid-19 patients is 61.53 per cent now.

Growing healthcare infrastructure of various types of Covid-19 facilities, adequately supported by Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and oxygen supported beds, ventilators and other equipment, have facilitated and ensured timely detection and effective clinical management of the coronavirus disease cases, the ministry had said.

India, meanwhile, saw a record single-day surge of 24,879 Covid-19 cases, taking the caseload to 7,67,296 on Thursday. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Delhi, Telangana, UP and Andhra Pradesh contributing to around 75 per cent of the new cases, according to the health ministry data.

The death toll climbed to 21,129 with 487 new fatalities, the update at 8 am showed.