The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Sunday said at least 869 patients were cured from the highly contagious novel coronavirus disease in the last 24 hours, improving the recovery rate in the country over 26 percent.

“So far, a total of 10,886 people have been cured. This takes our total recovery rate above 26 per cent, though total number of confirmed cases is now 40,263. Since yesterday, an increase of 2,487 cases has been recorded in the number of Covid-19 confirmed cases in India,” the Ministry said in a statement. During his visit to Lady Hardinge Medical College to review the status of Covid-19 management, Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan said the recovery rate was improving steadily.

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“The recovery rate of Covid19 patients has steadily increased which shows that more and more of these patients are getting better and going back to their homes. Till now over 10,000 Covid patients have recovered and have joined their normal life. Majority of patients in other hospitals are also on the road to recovery. It reflects the quality of care provided by our frontline health workers in India. It is heartening to see the high morale of our health warriors in these testing times,” he said.

Dr Harsh Vardhan also said that continuously observing discipline during Lockdown 3.0 would reap rich dividends in the ultimate fight against Covid-19.

Talking about opening up of the various activities, he said, “Slowly and gradually the economic activities would be opened up one by one. There is detailed planning according to which various industries like drug, pharmaceuticals etc. are being assisted to return back to normalcy as soon as possible.”

During his visit, the Minister went around the Director’s office, emergency, OPD, sampling centre, Covid block ~ the critical areas on ground and first floor, red zone area and changing facility for doctors and health workers. The health minister also stated that the prevention, containment and management of Covid-19 in the country is being monitored regularly at the highest levels in collaboration with the states.

“The rate of growth of new cases has also been steadying for a while. As per the data received today, for the past three days, the doubling rate is 12.0, for seven days, 11.7 and for 14 days, it is 10.4… We need to adhere to strict physical distancing and basic hand hygiene etiquettes properly to take lockdown 3.0 to a logical end,” he said.

The ministry said that Harsh Vardhan has urged the people of the country to observe the extended period of lockdown 3.0 (from 4 May till 17 May, 2020) in letter and spirit and treat it as an effective intervention to cut down the chain of transmission of Covid-19.