Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has said that no COVID-19 case has been reported in 10 states and union territories in the past 24 hours. Asserting that India is moving fast on the path of success in the fight against the pandemic, he said, recovery rate has improved to 30.7 per cent. According to health ministry data, 1,511 COVID-19 patients recovered in the last 24 hours - the highest number of recoveries recorded in one day.

Dr Harsh Vardhan said, four states and union territories have never reported any Corona case since the outbreak. The statement comes after the health minister inspected arrangements at a Covid-19 care centre in Mandoli area of the national capital. He said, Centre has sent 72 lakh N95 face masks and 36 lakh PPE kits to the states so far. According to the health minister, 855 Dedicated COVID Hospitals have been identified across the country with over 1.65 lakh beds. He said, there are 4,362 Covid-19 care centres where 3,46,856 patients with mild or very mild symptoms can be kept.

Adequate health infrastructure and health facilities have been identified and set up for COVID-19 management in the country. The public health facilities dedicated for COVID-19 case management are categorised into three categories as below:

Category I Dedicated COVID Hospital (DCH) - The Dedicated COVID Hospitals are hospitals that offer comprehensive care primarily for those who have been clinically assigned assevere. These hospitals shall have fully equipped ICUs, Ventilators and beds with assured Oxygen support. These hospitals shall have separate areas for suspect and confirmed cases. The Dedicated COVID Hospitals shall serve as referral centres for the Dedicated COVID Health Centres and the COVID Care Centres.

Category II Dedicated COVID Health Centre (DCHC) - The Dedicated COVID Health Centres are hospitals that offer care for all cases that have been clinically assigned as moderate. The Dedicated COVID Health Centresshall have separate areas for suspect and confirmed cases. These hospitals shall have beds with assured Oxygen support. Every Dedicated COVID Health Centre is mapped to one or more Dedicated COVIDHospitals.

Category III Dedicated COVID Care Centre (DCCC) - The COVID Care Centres shall offer care only for cases that have been clinically assigned as mild or very mild cases or COVID suspectcases. These are makeshift facilities which may be set up by the States/UTs in hostels, hotels, schools, stadiums, lodges etc., both public and private. These facilities shall have separate areas for suspected and confirmed cases.Every Dedicated COVID Care Centre is mapped to one or more Dedicated COVID Health Centres and at least one Dedicated COVID Hospital for referral purpose.

As on 10/05/2020, 7740 facilities in 483 districts have been identified in all the States/UTs that include hospitals and facilities of the State/UT Govts as well as the central Govt. There are 656769 isolation beds, 305567 beds for confirmed cases, 351204 beds for suspected cases, 99492 Oxygen supported beds, 1696 facilities with Oxygen manifold and 34076 ICU beds.

All the States/UTs have been requested by Government of India to notify and upload the assigned three types of COVID dedicated facilities on their websites for public information. 32 States/UTs have already uploaded the information on their websites/public information platforms and the rest are in the process of doing the same.

In view of the need for further increasing the testing capacity for COVID-19 at National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the procurement of a high throughput machine as per the recommendations of Empowered Group 2 was approved. The Cobas 6800 testing machine has been successfully installed at NCDC now. NCDC is providing support for testing of samples from Delhi, NCR, Ladakh, J&K and various other states, as per need. Presently the testing capacity at NCDC is about 300-350 tests per day. With Cobas 6800, which is a high throughput machine with the capacity to test around 1200 samples in 24 hours, the testing capacity for COVID-19 at NCDC has been significantly enhanced.

So far, a total of 19,357 people have been cured. In the last 24 hours, 1511 patients were found cured. This takes the total recovery rate to 30.76%. The total number of confirmed cases is now 62,939. Since yesterday, an increase of 3277 has been noted in the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases in India