Coronavirus recovery rate in India rises to over 42%, nearly 65,000 cured from COVID-19

• Punjab showed one of the best recovery rates in India, over 90% people were cured from the disease
• India registered one of the lowest COVID-19 fatality rates in the world, the health ministry said

The number of people recovered from coronavirus disease has further rose to 64,426 today, according to ministry of health and family welfare. Over 42% of the total coronavirus patients cured from the deadly disease. Timely lockdown and early detection of coronavirus cases are the main reasons behind the high recovery rate, the health ministry said.

"When the first lockdown started, then the recovery rate was around 7.1%. The recovery rate during the second lockdown was 11.42%, which further rose to 26.59%, " Lav Agarwal, joint secretary, health ministry said on Tuesday. On May 18, when lockdown 4.0 commenced, India’s recovery rate was 38%.

The total number of coronavirus cases in the country surged past 1.50 lakh today. The states continued to add over 6,000 cases even on Wednesday. The active number of coronavirus cases in India rose to 83,004.

The number of deaths due to COVID-19 infection increased to 4,337. India registered one of the lowest COVID-19 fatality rates in the world, the health ministry said on Monday. The mortality rate of coronavirus patients in the country has now reduced to 2.87% from 3.38% in April, the health ministry said. The global average for coronavirus fatality stood at 6.45%. While 4.4 deaths per lakh population were reported across the world, India witnessed about 0.3 deaths per lakh population, Agarwal said.

Maharashtra, the state which recorded over 50,000 COVID-19 cases, cured 16,954 patients. Tamil Nadu, the second worst-hit state by coronavirus pandemic registered over 50% recovery rate. Out of 17,728 coronavirus patients in Tamil Nadu, 9,342 were cured.

Gujarat and Delhi, other two severely affected states by COVID-19 pandemic in India also saw nearly 50% recovery rate. In Gujarat, 7,139 coronavirus patients were recovered from the disease. The total number of COVID-19 cases in the state zoomed to 14,821. Out of 14,465 patients in Delhi, 7,223 were cured.

Andhra Pradesh and Haryana reported over 60% recovery rates. Over 50% of the total coronavirus patients were cured in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Kerala. Punjab showed one of the best recovery rates in India. Over 90% of the total coronavirus patients were discharged from hospitals after recovery.

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) increased its COVID-19 testing capacity to over 1.1 lakh samples per day. "COVID-19 testing scaled up significantly. Over 1.1 lakh samples tested per day at 612 labs," said Dr Balram Bhargava, director general, ICMR.

As Brazil and India struggle with surging coronavirus cases, the World Health Organisation on Tuesday said that the first wave of coronavirus infection is not over yet. “Right now, we're not in the second wave. We're right in the middle of the first wave globally," said Dr Mike Ryan, the World Health Organization's executive director.

“We're still very much in a phase where the disease is actually on the way up," Ryan told reporters, pointing to South America, South Asia and other areas where infections are still on the rise.

Worldwide, the virus infected nearly 5.5 million people, killing over 350,456 according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Europe has had about 170,000 deaths and the US has seen nearly 100,000.

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