New Delhi, Jun 13 (IANS): The recovery rate among COVID-19 patients in India was recorded at 49.95 per cent on Saturday, the Union Health Ministry said.

The ministry has also added new signs of Covid symptoms such as loss of smell (anosmia) and loss of taste (ageusia) preceding the onset of respiratory symptoms.

The ministry said that on Friday the recovery rate was 49.47 per cent while on Thursday it was 49.21 per cent. It also stated that on Wednesday, the recovery rate was 48.88 per cent.

It stated that during the last 24 hours, 7,135 COVID-19 patients were cured. Thus, so far, a total of 1,54,329 patients have been cured of COVID-19. At present, there are 1,45,779 active cases and all are under active medical supervision.

The ministry said the Indian Council of Medical Research's testing capacity for detecting the novel Coronavirus in infected persons is continuously being ramped up.

The number of government labs has been increased to 642 and that of private labs to 243. In the last 24 hours, 1,43,737 samples were tested and the total number of samples tested thus far is 55,07,182.

The Ministry has issued an updated clinical management protocol for COVID-19.

The ministry, quoting data of Integrated Health Information Platform/ Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme portal case investigation forms for Covid-19, said the details on the signs and symptoms reported (as on June 11) are -- fever (27 per cent), cough (21 per cent), sore throat (10 per cent), breathlessness (8 per cent), weakness (7 per cent), running nose (3 per cent) and others 24 per cent.

The new protocol provides for the management of COVID-19 cases based on the clinical severity of mild, moderate or severe condition. Infection prevention and control practices have also been specified according to the three stages of severity.

These guidelines also specify investigational therapies for a defined subgroup of patients. However, an informed and shared decision-making is essential before prescribing any of these therapies, it added.