New Delhi: The daily new cases of COVID-19 and deaths due to the disease have shown a declining trend from August 13, the Health Ministry said Tuesday. The Health Ministry however, warned against any laxity. It underlined that five days are a short span in the context of a pandemic.
Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan addressed a press conference. He said that a sustained level of 7-8 lakh coronavirus tests per day is being done. In spite of that the positivity rate has come down from 10.03 per cent to 7.72 per cent.
“The daily new cases from August 13 are down from over 64,000 to 55,079 now. There is a declining trend. But five days are a short span in the context of a pandemic. There is no room for laxity on containment, testing and surveillance,” Bhushan asserted.
“Absolute deaths have also declined during the same period. These two parameters do give us some satisfaction. However, there is no reason for us to slacken our guard,” Bhushan added.
The senior health official said the number of recovered patients has reached close to 20 lakhs. The figure is 2.93 times of active COVID-19 cases.
“So far 19,77,779 people have recovered from the disease. There are 6,73,166 active cases of coronavirus infection. They are all under medical supervision,” he said.
Bhushan said the case fatality (CFR) rate has also come down below two per cent. “The daily case fatality rate has reduced to 1.92 per cent and the weekly average fatality rate is 1.94 per cent. Both are below two per cent,” informed Bhushan.
“In its interaction with state and UT governments, the Health Ministry has repeatedly underlined one fact. Our aim should be to bring down CFR to one per cent or below that,” Bhushan added.