By Dr Nitin Pandey
Dehradun, 6 Aug: Thursday was another good day for India on the Coronavirus front, as the percentage of active cases in the country dropped significantly from 34.7% last week to 30.31%, showing a greatly reduced disease burden in India.
Even though the absolute fugures of the TOTAL cases is nearly 20 lakhs, over 67% have healed, so one should not be overly worried about the total numbers as such.
This is collaborated by figures released by BMC on Maharashtra, which say 90% of beds in Covid Care Centres are lying vacant and most have been ordered to shut down. The number of people in institutional quarantine have dropped by 68% in Mumbai over the last month while those in home quarantine have dropped by 28%. And the most amazing point is that 92% of ICU beds in Mumbai are now unoccupied. According to figures released by the Union Health Ministry, Case Fatality Ratio in India has further dropped to 2.07 percent, one of the lowest in the world. It was 2.12 last week.
In Uttarakhand on Thursday, there were 298 cases with 194 patients being cured, so the net increase was just 100. Dehradun had 68 new cases today with 36 recoveries, so a very minimal increase in numbers. Of the 68 cases just 37 had no positive history, so the local spread continues to be minimal. The only negative aspect of COVID-19 in Uttarakhand is the slow testing rate, about 9000 tests are now pending which is what needs to be corrected. Of the total 8552 detected in Uttarakhand so far, 5427 have healed, giving a recovery rate of roughly 64%.
(Dr Nitin Pandey is a Dehradun based ex Indian Air Force doctor, a Pediatrician and an active Social worker.)
