India’s COVID-19 fatality rate declines to 2.25%; recovery rate rises over 64%: Health ministry

New Delhi, July 28: India's COVID-19 fatality rate is progressively falling from 3.33 per cent on June 18 to 2.25 per cent as on date, while the recovery rate increased from around 53 per cent in mid-June to more than 64 per cent, the Union health ministry said on Tuesday.

With 35,176 patients discharged in a 24-hour span, the total recoveries surged to 9,52,743 and exceed the active coronavirus cases by 4,55,755, it said. "The COVID-19 case fatality rate (CFR) has reduced from around 3.33 per cent in mid-June to 2.25 per cent today,” the ministry said.

"India continues its march as a country with one of the lowest fatality rates in the world," it said while underlining that the achievement was a result of effective implementation of containment strategy combined with house-to-house surveys, aggressive testing and standardised clinical management protocols based on holistic standard of care approach.

The ministry said such an approach ensured that hospitals were left unburdened with supervised home isolation for asymptomatic patients.

Under the guidance of the central government, the state and Union territory (UT) governments have focused on reducing fatalities by effectively managing severe cases and prioritising care of the high-risk population using field healthcare workers, leading to decrease in the COVID-19 case fatality rate (CFR) across the country. The ramped up three-tier hospital infrastructure along with prompt and seamless patient management has helped in consistent increase in the recoveries, it said.

For the fifth day in a row, India has seen more than 30,000 recoveries per day. The recovery rate among coronavirus infected patients has seen a sharp increase from around 53 per cent in mid-June to 64.24 per cent as on Tuesday, according to the ministry data. The actual active case load is presently 4,96,988 and all are under medical supervision.

The focused efforts on early detection and isolation along with handholding of states and UTs by expert teams of AIIMS, New Delhi for efficient clinical management of hospitalised cases and periodic visits of central teams, have borne results with continuously improving recovery rate, the ministry said.

With a single-day increase of 47,703 COVID-19 cases, India's infection tally mounted to 14,83,156 on Tuesday, while the death toll due to the disease rose to 33,425 with 654 fresh fatalities, the ministry data updated at 8 am showed.