10 states/UTs with 76 per cent new cases asked to implement targeted public communication campaign at the grass root level to encourage ‘Covid appropriate behaviour’
As of September 23, new recoveries in India have exceeded the new cases for the fifth consecutive day, according to data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The country recorded 89,746 recoveries in the last 24 hours in the country, whereas the number of new confirmed cases stands at 83,347.
While union health ministry data show that the country’s recovery rate continues to rise and crossed 81 per cent, India’s testing capacity has reportedly surged to more than 12 lakh daily tests. More than 6.6 crore total tests have been conducted across the country.
A release from the union health ministry reasons that high level of testing leads to early identification of positive cases, and goes on to state that evidence has revealed that eventually positivity rate will fall.
As India ramps up COVID-19 testing, union health ministry data shows that 14 States/UTs have demonstrated better COVID response with higher Tests Per Million (TPM) and commensurate lower positivity rate than the national average.
The national cumulative positivity rate is 8.52 per cent and the TPM stands at 48028 as of September 23.
The release noted that a total of 83,347 new cases have been reported in the last 24 hours in the country. 1,085 deaths have been registered in the past 24 hours, with 10 states/UTs accounting for 83 per cent of COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra reported 392 deaths followed by Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh with 83 and 77 deaths, respectively.
Total number of recoveries are 45,87,613, with a recovery rate of 81.25 per cent. While India has the second highest number of COVID-19 cases globally, the country has the highest recovered cases in the world, contributing 19.5 per cent to global recoveries. 17 states/UTs have more new recoveries than new cases.
The Centre has asked 10 key states contributing 76 per cent of all reported COVID-19 cases to implement targeted public communication campaign at the grass root level to encourage ‘Covid appropriate behaviour’ among the people in the worst affected districts.
These 10 states are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Kerala, Telangana and Delhi which have maximum number of active cases.
Within Maharashtra, Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur, Sangli and Kolhapur have been identified as key districts for intensive CoVID-19 communication, as per the note.
Maharashtra has alone contributed more than 18,000 cases followed by Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka with more than more than 7,000 and 6,000 cases respectively.
On the recoveries side, 75 per cent of the new recovered cases are being reported from the same ten states/UTs with high COVID-19 new cases, almost in the same order: Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Delhi, Kerala, West Bengal and Haryana.
Maharashtra also continues lead with more than 20,000 new cases of recovered patients. Andhra Pradesh contributed more than 10,000 to the single day recoveries.