COVID-19 recovery rate in India among highest in the world: Health Ministry

New Delhi, Dec 17: India's COVID-19 recovery rate is amongst the highest in the world, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday, underlining that countries like the US, Brazil, Russia, and Italy are reporting lesser recovery rates.

With focussed strategy and proactive as well as calibrated measures of the Centre along with the States and UTs, India has sustained a very high COVID-19 recovery rate along with rapidly declining active cases and low mortality rate, it said.

"While the global figure for recovery rate is 70.27 per cent, India is recording 95.31 per cent.The USA, Brazil, Russia, and Italy are reporting lesser recovery rates," the ministry said. Recoveries outnumbering new cases on a daily basis have ensured a high recovery rate among patients. The total recovered cases are nearing 95 lakh.

"The gap between recoveries and active cases is also increasing consistently and presently stands at 91,67,374," the ministry said. The rising recoveries have also led to a continuous contraction of India's active caseload which presently stands at 3,22,366 and consists of just 3.24 per cent of India's total infections.

Following the national pursuit, 18 states and UTs have a recovery rate more than the national average. India has registered 33,291 new recoveries in a span of 24 hours.

The ministry said that 75.63 per cent of these new recovered cases are contributed by ten states and UTs. With 5,728 persons recovering from COVID-19, Kerala has recorded maximum number of recoveries. Maharashtra registered another 3,887 daily recoveries while West Bengal registered 2,767 new recoveries.

A total of 24,010 new daily cases were registered in a span of 24 hours. Ten states and UTs have contributed 78.27 per cent of the new infections. Kerala reported 6,185 cases in a span of 24 hours. West Bengal recorded 2,293 new cases while Chhattisgarh registered 1,661 new cases yesterday. Of the 355 new fatalities, 79.15 per cent have been reported in a span of 24 hours by ten states and UTs.

Maharashtra reported 26.76 per cent of new fatalities.West Bengal saw a fatality count of 46 while Delhi reported 32 new deaths. India has registered a steady decline in the number of daily deaths. The case fatality rate is sustained at 1.45 per cent and is consistently decreasing. India's fatality rate is one of the lowest in the world, the ministry said.