The number of people recovering from Covid-19 was more than 60,000 for the sixth day in a row

India continues to record a declining Covid-19 Case Fatality Rate (CFR), which currently stands at 1.76% against a global average of 3.3%, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Wednesday.

It stated that Covid-19 deaths per million population in India is one of the lowest in the world.

"While the global average is 110 deaths per million population, India is reporting 48 deaths per million population. The comparative figure for Brazil and the UK is 12 and 13 times higher, respectively," the ministry added.

Data released by the ministry also showed that the number of people recovering from Covid-19 was more than 60,000 for the sixth day in a row.

India's Covid-19 recovery rate has now gone up to 76.98%; the total number of recovered patients in the country stands at 29,01,908. According to the ministry, the last 10 lakh recoveries have been recorded in only 17 days in comparison to preceding 10 lakh recoveries which were recorded in 22 days.

With this, the number of recovered cases has overtaken the active cases by more than 21 lakhs. There has been more than 4 times jump in the average weekly recoveries from the first week of July to last week of August, the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry pointed out that as many as 1,578 dedicated COVID Hospitals are providing quality medical care. The central government has also announced the Standard of Care guidelines included in the Clinical Treatment Protocol.

Maintaining the COVID-19 management and response policy was proving effective, it said the Centre’s sharp focus has been not only on containing the coronavirus-related fatality, but also to lower deaths by providing quality clinical care to the critical and severe patients.

E-ICU sessions have been started by the AIIMS, New Delhi to build the capacities of the ICU doctors in clinical management of critical patients towards reducing the fatality. From July 8, twice every week, Tele- or video-consultation sessions have been taking place for the doctors manning ICUs in state hospitals by knowledge and domain experts.

As of now, 17 tele-sessions have been conducted and 204 institutions have attended them.

AIIMS, New Delhi, in collaboration with the Health Ministry, has also released frequently answered questions (FAQs) to further build the ICU, clinical management capacities of doctors for treatment of patients in a critical situation.

One of the clarifications by the ministry on plasma therapy is that convalescent plasma collected from ABO matched donors with high neutralizing titers can be given to patients at risk of developing severe COVID in early stages of the disease. However, it should also be considered an experimental therapy and should be used with caution.

As far as the role of Favipiravir is concerned, it said studies have used this drug mainly in mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 cases, claiming to prevent progression, whereas the majority of this cohort recover with just supportive care and monitoring and usually require no specific therapy.

Moreover, it is currently not recommended in national guidelines because of its debilitating evidence.