Government today said that a total of 3,79,892 people affected with Coronavirus have recovered in the country so far. In the past 24 hours, a record 20032 people have recovered from Covid-19 and with this the recovery rate has improved to 60.72 per cent.

The Health and Family Welfare Ministry said, 20, 903 new cases of Covid-19 have been reported in the country in the last 24 hours taking the total number of cases to  6,25,544. This is the highest spike in fresh cases since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic in India. In a single day, 379 deaths have been reported taking the nationwide toll to 18,213. Presently, the total number of active corona cases in the country is two lakh 27,439.Indian Council of Medical Research, ICMR said that a total of 2,41,576 Coronavirus tests were conducted by various laboratories in the country in the last 24 hours. This is the highest number of tests conducted by laboratories since the outbreak of the pandemic in India. So far, 92 ,97,749 tests have been conducted.

ICMR is continuously increasing its testing facilities for Covid-19 by giving approval to government and private laboratories. As of now,a total 1074 laboratories across India have been given approval including 775 government laboratories and 299 private laboratory chains.

Meanwhile, Union Health Ministry has issued revised clinical management protocol for COVID-19 patients. The new protocol also contains the details of symptoms and conditions in different stages of treatment.

The Ministry has also described the use of investigational therapies- Remdesivir, Convalescent Plasma, Tocilizumab and Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) on COVID-19 infected persons. It said, the use of these drugs is subjected to limited availability in the country as of now and currently, these drugs should only be used in a defined sub-group of patients. In the protocol, the Ministry has recommended the dosage of the antiviral drug--Remdesivir, being administered to hospitalized COVID-19 patients to five-day treatment course.

The Ministry said, remdesivir drug is only for restricted emergency use on patients with moderate disease who are on oxygen support. The drug can not be administered to a pregnant or lactating mother and children below the age of 12 years. Also, the drug is not recommended to a patient with severe renal impairment.

The use of anti-malaria drug HCQ has been recommended for early use in the disease course as possible to achieve any meaningful effects and should be avoided in patients with severe disease. However, the use of Tocilizumab drug as an off-label application may be considered in patients with moderate disease with progressively increasing oxygen requirements.