New Delhi, May 28 (IANS): The discharge rate in Covid-19 cases has accelerated after a change in policy, said V.K. Paul, Member, NITI Aayog and Chairman, Empowered Group-1, said on Thursday.

However, he also said, that even in the previous policy, corona patients were recovering but were not counted until they tested negative.

"Before the new guidelines, the patients were discharged after some time and with certain conditions. But the patients had already recovered. With our data, it was found that the patients were recovering timely. It was also found that they were testing negative or even if the test came positive, it is the inactive virus," Paul said while speaking to media.

So, he said the data gave authorities the confidence that the patients can be discharged a little early.

"The discharge rate has accelerated after the change in the policy. It is also important to note that patients have anyway recovered, but we were taking more time in their discharge. This is good and positive in the sense that we can now send the patients early and the bed can be vacated," he added.

The Union Health Ministry on Thursday said the recovery rate of COVID-19 patients in India is 42.75 per cent.

Earlier this month, the Union Health Ministry issued a revised discharge policy for COVID-19 patients based on clinical severity.

It tweaked the rules for discharge of such patients who would be released only after two RT-PCR tests conducted on them returned negative.