India recorded a total of 3,390 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of cases in the country to 56,342, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) said at a press conference in New Delhi on Friday, according to news agency PTI.
According to the health ministry, there were 103 deaths due to the novel coronavirus over the past day, taking the total death toll in the country to 1,886.
Addressing the press conference, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary at the MoHFW said that 16,540 patients had reportedly recovered from COVID-19 so far, which constitutes about 29.36% of the total number of cases. A total of 1,273 patients have recovered over the past 24 hours.
Agarwal added that no new cases of COVID-19 had been reported from 42 districts in the country over the past 28 days, and that no new cases had been reported in 29 districts over the past three weeks. New cases have also not been found in 36 districts in the past 14 days while 46 districts across the country had no new cases over the past week. A total of 216 districts in the country have not had a case of COVID-19 as yet.
He said that 3.2 per cent of the total active COVID-19 cases are on oxygen support while 4.2 per cent are in Intensive Care Units. He mentioned that 1.1 per cent of the cases are on ventilator support.
Agarwal reportedly said that if they country follows do’s and don’ts, the number of cases in the country will not peak and “our curve may remain flat.”
“Today, when we are talking of relaxations and return of migrant workers, we have to understand that we also have to learn to live with the virus. The preventive guidelines against the virus need to be implemented as behavioural changes,” he said, according to ANI.
The Joint Secretary added that 5,231 railway coaches had been converted into COVID Care Centres, and will be placed at 215 stations. They will be used to treat mild and very mild cases of COVID-19, he said.
The Health Ministry official also said that the Indian Council of Medical research will be conducting clinical trials to assess the safety of convalescent plasma therapy in 21 hospitals in the country.
