The Union Government today said that the COVID-19 recovery rate has reached 52.46 per cent in the country and a total of 1, 80,013 people affected with Coronavirus have been cured in the country. During the last 24 hours, 10,215 people have recovered from this infection. Presently, the total number of active Corona cases in the country is 1,53,178.

The Health and Family Welfare Ministry said that 10,667 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the last 24 hours taking the total number of cases to 3,43,091 in the country. During the last 24 hours, 380 deaths were registered taking the nationwide toll to 9,900. With this, the case fatality rate reached at 2.88 per cent in the country.

Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research, ICMR said that a total of 1,54,935 tests of Coronavirus were conducted by the various laboratories in the country within the last 24 hours. So far, 59,21,069 tests have been conducted. ICMR is continuously scaling up its testing facilities for COVID-19 by giving approval to government and private laboratories. As of now, total 907 laboratories across India have been given approval to conduct the test for COVID-19 including 659 government laboratories and 248 private laboratory chains.

Meanwhile, Centre asks States to engage with private sector for boosting healthcare infrastructure at reasonable rates
AIRCentre has asked States to engage with the private sector for augmenting healthcare infrastructure, and provisioning of critical care at reasonable rates.

Health Ministry said, some States have already taken initiatives in this regard.They have reached an agreement with the private sector on reasonable rates and arrangements to provide critical care for in-patient admissions.

The Ministry said, there have been several reports indicating an emerging shortage of healthcare infrastructure including hospitals with ICU beds, ventilators, oxygen supported beds, for management of COVID-19 patients.

There have also been reports of overcharging by healthcare providers for COVID-19 treatment.It has been suggested that the rates, once fixed, must be widely publicized so that both the patients and service providers are fully aware and capacities are used optimally.

Globally, more than eight million cases of the Novel Coronavirus have been confirmed worldwide including 4,35,662 fatalities. According to John Hopkins University, a total of 80,05,294 COVID-19 cases have been reported from across 188 countries.

With over 21 lakh cases and over one lakh 18 thousand deaths, the US continues with the world's highest number of COVID-19 infections and fatalities.

In terms of cases, Brazil comes in the second place with around nine lakh infections. Regarding fatalities, Brazil has overtaken the United Kingdom in the second position with over 43 thousand COVID-19 deaths.

This was followed by Russia, India, the UK and Spain.