India’s tally of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) stood at 59,662 after 3320 new cases and 95 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, the Union health ministry said on Saturday morning.
According to the health ministry’s dashboard at 8am, there are 39,834 active cases and 17,847 people who have been cured or discharged or have migrated across the country.
Lav Agarwal, the ministry’s joint secretary, said during a press briefing on the Covid-19 situation in India, that the doubling rate of cases has reduced recently.
“We will have to learn to live with the virus. All practices should be implemented as a behavioural change. The challenge is massive, we need everyone’s support,” Agarwal added.
The health ministry has also revised its guidelines for discharge of Covid-19 patients, saying only severe cases will be tested once through the real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method, after the symptoms subside.
The other category of patients, including very mild, mild, pre-symptomatic and moderate cases, need not be tested before they are discharged.
The revised guidelines are in complete contrast with the government’s earlier guidelines that said a case confirmed by laboratory had to be tested on day 14 once and then again in a span of 24 hours, and the patient will be fit for discharge only if both the results are negative.
“After discharge from the facility, if they again develop symptoms… contact the COVID Care Centre or State helpline or 1075,” the new rules said.
Globally, more than 3.9 million people have contracted the coronavirus disease and 274,898 have died, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker.
