The news is a big relief amid the novel coronavirus scare in the country. Addressing a daily media briefing, Joint Secretary of Health and Family Welfare Lav Agarwal said that the ministry has analysed the data of cases of novel coronavirus in the country in many ways. It has been found that the rate of recovery of the patient is higher than that of the deceased.

 

"At least 1,749 people recovered so far which is 13.6% as on today." He also said that the doubling rate that means in how many days numbers of cases get doubled in the country has also reduced. "Our doubling rate of the number of cases is 6.2 days. The analysis is based on data of the last 7 days. It was 3 days before the lockdown. It is a product of how we are managing situations at field level. This is an ongoing process. We need to intensify our vigil to reduce the doubling rate even more," said Agarwal.

 

Agarwal also said that there are at least 19 states and UTs where the doubling rate is less than the national average. These are Kerala, Uttarakhand, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Puducherry, Bihar, Odisha, Telangana, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab Assam and Tripura.

 

The Joint secretary explained that the data was analysed in another way also in which growth factor and outcome ratio were calculated. "Growth factor is calculated by comparing today's cases with the number of cases that came yesterday. We have found that the average growth factor is at 1.2 since April 1 which was 2.1 at an average between March 15 and March 31. There is 40 per cent decline in average growth factor even as we have increased the number of testing by testing even ILI (Influenza Like Illness) and SARI (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) samples,'' Agarwal said.

 

He also said that the outcome ratio which is number of recovered people against number of deaths stood in the proportion of 80:20 in India which is higher than that in several other counties. "Although every death is a matter of concern for the country. But we have found that the ratio between recovered COVID-19 patients vs number of deaths, is 80:20 in India, which is higher than that in several other counties," said Agarwal.