The total number of recovered people affected with coronavirus , crossed the 5.5 lakh mark yesterday . The Central Government said, a total of 5, 53,471 people have recovered in the country so far and with this the recovery rate reached 63.01 per cent.

During the last 24 hours, 18,850 people have recovered from Covid-19. There are 19 States and Union Territories which is  higher  than the national average of recovery rate.The Health and Family Welfare Ministry said a total of 28,701 new cases of Covid-19 have been reported in the country within 24 hours taking the total number of cases to 8,78,254. This is the highest number of fresh cases recorded in one day since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic in India.

Presently, the total number of active corona cases in the country is 3,01,609. In a single day, 500 deaths have been reported taking the nationwide toll to 23,174. With this the Covid fatality rate reached 2.63 per cent in the country. 30 States and Union Territories have the lowest fatality rate than the national average of fatality rate.

Meanwhile, Indian Council of Medical Research, ICMR said, that a total of 2,19,103 tests of corona virus samples were conducted by the various laboratories in the country within 24 hours. So far 1,18,6,256 tests have been conducted.Testing per million is 8,555 in the country.

ICMR is continuously scaling up its testing facilities for Covid-19 by giving approval to government and private laboratories. As of now, total 1,200 laboratories across India have been given approval to conduct the test for Covid-19 including 852 government laboratories and 348 private laboratories' chains.

Meanwhile, the Union Health Ministry has pushed for an increased expenditure on public health. In a meeting with the 15th Finance Commission, the Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, yesterday highlighted that the government aims at gradually increasing the public health expenditure to 2.5 per cent of the nation's GDP by the year 2025.

The Minister asserted that the outlay for primary health expenditure will also be made nearly two third of the total public health expenditure in the country. Reiterating the government's target of the National Health Policy 2017, Dr. Vardhan emphasized on the importance of increasing the state’s health sector spending to nearly 8 per cent of their total budget.

The Health Ministry apprised the Finance Commission of the need to further strengthen the public health sector, surveillance and public health management, preventive and promotive health care system in the country.

The Health Ministry has also revised its requirement of around 4.9 lakh crores to 6.04 lakh crores in view of the COVID pandemic. It has asked for additional resources for the States which would be utilized for achievement of the National Health Policy targets.