With more coronavirus patients taking longer to recover, experts believe the focus now needs to be on the road to recovery. Many recovered patients are now reporting lung damage, shortness of breath and other respiratory illnesses. All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi has decided to start a post-coronavirus recovery clinic to monitor such cases.

Speaking to India Today, Dr Randeep Guleria, Director, AIIMS, New Delhi said, "Since our recovery rate is now increasing, we now need to focus on the recovered coronavirus patients. We will be starting a post-recovery clinic for such patients at AIIMS. Those who have recovered will be evaluated on their residual problems. Whether it is a heart problem or an effect on the lungs."

"Some patients are experiencing what is called post-Covid sequelae," Dr Guleria added, "Some have reported lung damage, or need oxygen even post-recovery. Some are reporting shortness of breath. There are milder symptoms also, such as body aches, fatigue and laziness.""We will focus on improving the lung capacities of recovered patients, whether it is through exercise, yoga, diet or even through medicines," he added. Several doctors treating coronavirus patients have reported that the virus not only has a long-term effect on the lungs, but also other organs of the body.

Recently, Israel has given state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence-based technologies and high-end equipment to AIIMS, Delhi as part of Israel-India cooperation to fight the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Israeli Ambassador to India Dr Ron Malka formally handed over the high-end equipment and technology solutions to Director of AIIMS, Dr Randeep Guleria in the presence of Chief Guest Sanjay Bhattacharya, Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs yesterday.

It also includes a 12-hour disinfection product called CPD that stays active to protect the surface against new attacks of contamination, a non-invasive remote patient monitoring system which aids as a preliminary screening tool of respiratory indicators of suspected COVID-19 patients and recovering patients and AI-based software for Ultrasound use and designed especially for fighting COVID-19.

Dr Guleria said India-Israel relations are strong. Earlier, India helped Israel with medicines and safety gear. Now Israel has sent equipment including robotic teleconsultation and telemonitoring equipment.

Meanwhile, there has been a sharp hike in the recovery rate, which is pegged at nearly 70% today. With more patients recovering and being discharged from hospitals and home isolation (in case of mild and moderate cases), the total recoveries have jumped to 15,83,489 with 47,746 COVID-19 patients were discharged in the last 24 hours.

The actual caseload of the country is the active cases (6,39,929) which is only 28.21% of the total positive cases. They are under active medical supervision. With a consistent and sustained increase in recoveries, the gap between recovered patients and active COVID-19 cases has reached nearly 9.5 lakh.

The gap between percentage Recoveries and percentage Active Cases is growing every day. Focus on improved and effective clinical treatment in hospitals, use of non-invasive, improved and coordinated services of the ambulances for ferrying patients for prompt and timely treatment have resulted in seamless efficient patient management of COVID-19 patients. As a result, the Case Fatality Rate has been low when compared to the global average. It has fallen below 2% today, currently standing at 1.99%.