Government today said that for the first time the number of recovered patients from COVID-19 has exceeded the number of active patients.

Health Ministry said, one lakh thirty five thousand two hundred and five patients have recovered and the total number of active cases is one lakh thirty three thousand six hundred thirty two. The recovery rate now stands at 48.88 per cent. In the last 24 hours, as many as five thousand nine hundred ninetyone patients were cured of COVID-19.

The Ministry said, Central Teams are being deputed to provide technical support and guidance to the State Health Departments and Municipal Health Officials, to review public health measures being undertaken for COVID-19 in six cities. These cities are Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and Bengaluru.

The teams will undertake visit to these cities within the next one week to review public health measures being undertaken for COVID-19. The teams will submit daily report of activities undertaken to State Health Department and the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. They will inform them regarding any issue of urgent importance and also submit a report of its observations and suggestions before concluding the visit.For an effective coordiantion between different departments, 16th meeting of Group of Ministers (GoM) was held in New Delhi through video conference in which containment measures of COVID-19 was reviewed.

During the meeting, the GoM was briefed about the latest status, response and management of COVID-19 in the country.GoM Chairman Dr Harsh Vardhan said that India is in a much better place than rest of the world but there was no scope for complacency.The GoM was also apprised about the growing medical infrastructure in the country.

The GoM was also briefed on the progress made in the spheres of the tasks assigned to the 11 Empowered Groups.

Dr Harsh Vardhan also said that as the country has entered into the Unlock 1.0 phase where restrictions have been eased, people are required to be more disciplined and they should follow all norms related physical distancing, hand hygiene and protocols of respiratory etiquette.

He strongly reiterated that there is no space for complacency. He also reminded everyone to download Aarogya Setu app which will help in self-risk assessment and in protection against COVID-19. More than 12.55 crore people in the country have downloaded the app so far.

Chairman of Empowered Group-5 Parameswaran Iyer presented the critical strategies adopted to ease the burden of lockdown while enabling supply of critical items for the country to fight the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Health and Family Welfare Ministry has ordered that all CGHS empanelled hospitals, which are notified as COVID-hospitals by State Governments shall provide treatment facilities to CGHS beneficiaries for all COVID related treatments. It has also been directed that all the CGHS empanelled hospitals, which are not notified as COVID hospitals, shall not deny treatment facilities or admission to CGHS beneficiaries and shall charge as per CGHS norms, for all other treatments.

Ministry said that action will be taken in case of violation of the guidelines. In this regard, the Ministry has issued an order today to all the Health Care Organizations (HCOs) empanelled under CGHS after reviewing the representations from CGHS beneficiaries regarding the difficulties in availing of treatment facilities at private hospitals and Diagnostic Centres empanelled under CGHS.