Till May 9, a total of 59,662 cases have been reported from the country in which 17,847 persons have been cured

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan on Saturday said in India, there are 2.41 percent active Covid-19 patients in ICU, 0.38 percent on ventilators and 1.88 percent on oxygen support.

“The testing capacity has (also) increased in the country and it is 95,000 tests per day with 332 government laboratories and 121 private laboratories. Cumulatively, 15,25,631 tests have been done so far for COVID-19,” Dr Harsh Vardhan said while holding a high level meeting with health ministers and senior officials of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim through video conferencing.

Till May 9, he said a total of 59,662 cases have been reported from the country in which 17,847 persons have been cured, while 1,981 people have succumbed to the virus.

In the last 24 hours, 3,320 new confirmed cases have been added and 1307 patients were found cured. He added that the fatality rate is 3.3 percent and recovery rate is 29.9 percent.

Talking in details about preparation to fight the deadly virus, the Union Minister said appropriate measures are being taken to combat COVID-19 and with the cohesive efforts of both the Centre and states. “Dedicated COVID hospitals, isolation and ICU beds and quarantine centres are being identified and developed,” the Union Minister said.

He appreciated northeastern states’ dedication in combating Covid-19. “It is a huge relief and very encouraging to see green zones in most northeastern states. As of date, only Assam and Tripura have active Covid-19 cases; the other states are all in the green zone. Let us focus and work together by converting the orange zones to green zones and maintain the protective status across the states,” he stated.

To maintain the positive status of COVID-19 management in the region, Dr Harsh Vardhan advised the states to ensure that the returning migrant labourers, students and those returning from abroad should be screened and quarantined as per the guidelines and protocol laid down by the by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of External Affairs.

He also stated that the guidelines for discharging patients is also revised and needs to be followed by all the states.

For the states that have international borders, Dr Harsh Vardhan said, they need to take adequate measures at the border areas to prevent exposure by conducting screening of all individuals entering the state at entry points and following quarantine protocol as per the guidelines.


IVD Bureau