Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi (SHP)

New Delhi, Jul 20: The Union Health Ministry of India has claimed that the COVID Fatality Rate (CFR) of people with coronavirus has fallen below 2.5 per cent for the first time. The ministry further stated that the CFR of India is at 2.49 per cent which is the lowest in India.

India's COVID-19 case fatality rate declined from 3.2 per cent around May 12 to 2.82 per cent around June 1. It declined further to 2.72 per cent on July 10 and to 2.49 per cent at present.

The number of recovered COVID-19 patients exceeds India's active caseload by 3,04,043 with 6.77 lac people having recuperated from the disease so far, the ministry said as the coronavirus infection tally surged to 10,77,618 and the death count rose to 26,816 on Sunday.

"The total number of recovered cases is 6,77,422. The recovery rate as of now is at 62.86 per cent," the ministry said.

There are 29 states and union territories with a case fatality rate (CFR) lower than the national average, with five of them having a CFR of zero and 14 having fatality rate of less than 1 per cent.

The health ministry has credited the lower CFR to the efficient clinical management of hospitalised cases and efforts of the Centre, UT and state governments.

With effective containment strategy, aggressive testing and standardized clinical management protocols based on a holistic standard of care approach, the CFR has significantly dipped, it said.

The ministry also pointed out that many states conducted the population surveys to map and identify the vulnerable population like the elderly, pregnant women and those with comorbidities.

The ministry also attributed the use of technology and ramping up of health infrastructure to the effective tackling of the coronavirus cases.

"At the ground level, frontline health workers like ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activists) and ANMs (Auxiliary Nursing Midwives) have done a commendable job of managing the migrant population and to enhance awareness at the community level.

As per the data, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim, Mizoram, Andaman and Nicobar Islands have zero case fatality rate.

States and UTs having a CFR below the national average include Tripura (0.19%), Assam (0.23%), Kerala (0.34%), Odisha (0.51%), Goa (0.60%), Himachal Pradesh (0.75%), Bihar (0.83%), Telangana (0.93%), Andhra Pradesh (1.31%), Tamil Nadu (1.45%), Chandigarh (1.71%), Rajasthan (1.94%), Karnataka (2.08%) and Uttar Pradesh (2.36%).

As per the testing strategy laid down by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), registered medical practitioners have been able to recommend testing.

The Rapid Antigen Point of Care (POC) Test, coupled with the facilitation of widespread gold-standard RT-PCR based testing by states and UTs, has resulted in a surge in the number of samples tested. A total of 3,58,127 samples were tested on Saturday.

With a total of 1,37,91,869 samples tested so far, the testing per million (TPM) for India has reached 9994.1, the ministry said.