India Among Countries With Lowest Per Million COVID-19 Cases & Deaths, Says Health Ministry

New Delhi: India has sustained its global position of being the country with one of the lowest COVID-19 cases per million and reported deaths per million due to its focussed strategies and calibrated measures, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday. There has been a continuous decline in the average daily new cases from the last five weeks, Economic Times (ET) reported.

“The weekly average of daily new cases fell from 92,830 cases in the 2nd week of September to 70,114 cases in the 2nd week of October,” the ministry was quoted as saying.

India is reporting a consistent slide in the new confirmed cases with 55,342 fresh infections being registered in a span of 24 hours in the country.

The new low in daily cases is the result of:

• Collaborative action by states and UTs under the Centre’s strategy of comprehensive and aggressive testing
• Prompt tracking and surveillance
• Hospitalisation and adherence to the Standard Treatment Protocol
• This has ensured a standardised quality of medical care across the public and private hospitals and for home isolation

The global figure for COVID-19 cases per million is 4,794, while India is clocking 5,199 infections. The deaths/million in India are 79, while the world average is 138.

“As far as tests for detection of COVID-19 are concerned, India is one of the topmost countries,” the ministry highlighted.

“With 10,73,014 tests being conducted on Monday, the cumulative number of tests done so far stands at 8.89 crores (8,89,45,107).

Higher numbers of testing on a sustained basis have aided the early identification and timely treatment which leads to higher recoveries and lower fatality rate, the ministry was quoted as saying.

India continues to report a trend of steadily decreasing active cases. At present, the active cases comprise merely 11.69 per cent of the total COVID-19 caseload of the country standing at 8,38,729.

The active cases have been below the 9 lakh mark for the fifth consecutive day, the ministry said. Besides, 77,760 new recoveries were added in a span of 24 hours. With this, the total number of recoveries has surged to 62,27,295, the ministry said.