The doubling time has gone up from 3.4 days at the beginning of the lockdown on March 25 to 17.4 days now.

The recovery rate of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in India increased to 49.47% on Friday.

According to data released by the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, a total of 1,47,194 people have been cured and recovered and 1,41,842 individuals are under active medical supervision.

The number of individuals who have recovered of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours stands at 6,166.

At the same time, the doubling rate/time continues to improve. It has gone up from 3.4 days at the beginning of the lockdown on March 25 to 17.4 days now.

On Wednesday, the total number of people who have recovered from Covid-19 in India crossed the number of patients who are undergoing treatment for the first time.

According to official data released then, there were 1,33,632 active Covid-19 cases, or patients who were undergoing treatment. The number of patients who had been cured, or had recovered, stood at 1,35,206 - a number higher than the total active cases for the first time.

Focus on containment, testing and tracing

Over the past few weeks, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has steadily ramped up the testing capacity for detecting the novel Coronavirus in infected persons. According to official figures, 1,50,305 samples were tested in the last 24 hours. A total of 53,63,445 samples have been tested thus far.

There are 877 labs operational at present in the country - 637 government labs and 240 private labs.

While the overall situation shows signs of improvement, states and Union Territories have been advised to focus on containment, testing and tracing. In a video conference with Chief Secretaries, Secretary Health and Secretary Urban Development of all the states, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba called for special attention to emerging epicentres.

It was critical to have active house-to-house surveillance through special teams in containment zones for early identification of cases, he said.

The state administrations were also advised to upgrade the health infrastructure, particularly hospitals. to manage the cases as per projections besides ensuring sufficient logistics like pulse oximeters, and trained doctors, staff nurses, and non-clinical staff.