Only 0.33 per cent COVID-19 patients are on ventilators: Vardhan

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday said of the total active COVID-19 cases in the country, only 0.33 per cent patients are on ventilators, 1.5 per cent are on oxygen support and 2.34 per cent are in ICU.

Active COVID-19 patients are those who have been diagnosed with the disease and are currently undergoing treatment in hospitals or are lodged in quarantine facilities.

The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 1,008 and the number of cases climbed to 31,787 in the country on Wednesday, according to the Union Health Ministry. The number of active COVID-19 cases stand at 22,982 in the country, according to the data updated on Wednesday evening.

Oxygen therapy is given to supplement the oxygen deficiency usually through masks or nasal prongs while ventilator is a mechanical respiratory device which does the work of the lungs when the body is unable to do the required breathing.

Vardhan, who interacted with the Lions Club International members across the country through video conference, said the doubling rate of coronavirus cases is 11.3 days in the country for the last three days.

The Union minister said the mortality rate in COVID-19 patients in India is three per cent as compared to seven per cent globally and around 86 per cent of the fatalities have been reported among those with co-morbiditie like diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney and heart related issues.

"Only 0.33 per cent patients are on ventilators, 1.5 per cent patients are on oxygen support and 2.34 per cent patients are in ICU, which reflects the quality of care being provided across the country," Vardhan said.

In case of any further eventuality, the country is well equipped with isolation beds, ventilators, personal protection equipment and masks among others, he said.

Vardhan also informed that 288 government laboratories are working along with 97 private laboratory chains with around 16,000 sample collection centres and testing around 60,000 tests per day.

The government is working to increase the testing capacity to one lakh tests per day within the next few days, he added.

Since the development of a vaccine is going to take a longer time, lockdown and social distancing are serving as effective 'social vaccine', Vardhan said.

"The Ministry of Science and Technology, under my charge, has also been working on innovations and have been funding certain projects which are going to make the testing procedure quite fast," he said.

Maintaining a continuous situation awareness, pre-emptive and proactive approach, graded response as per continuously evolving scenario, inter-sectoral coordination at all levels and creating a people's movement to combat this disease has been India's approach in combating COVID-19, the minister highlighted.

Commenting on the country's strength in tackling the disease, he said, "India has successfully tackled public health emergencies of international concern and pandemics in the past as well.

"Our nation has the requisite national core capacities stipulated in the International Health Regulations to manage public health emergencies."