No community transmission yet; India has 538 COVID-19 cases per million against world average of 1,453: Health Minister Harsh Vardhan

NEW DELHI: Union Health Harsh Vardhan, who chaired a Group of Ministers meet to review the COVID-19 situation, said on Thursday that there is no community transmission of the deadly virus yet in the country.  

“During our discussions today, experts again stated that there is no community transmission in India. There may be some localised pockets where transmission is high but as a country, there's no community transmission,” Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said after the Group of Ministers meet on COVID-19.

While reaffirming that the situation is fully under control, the Health Minister said that people need to see the COVID-19 situation in correct perspective. 

“We are seeing on TV that India has become the 3rd most COVID-19 affected country. It is necessary to see this in correct perspective; we are a country with the second highest population in the world,” Harsh Vardhan said adding, “Our cases per million are 538, while world average is 1,453.”

The remarks from the Union Health Minister came on a day when India recorded the highest single-day spike of over 24,879 new coronavirus cases and 487 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the total tally to 7,67,296 with 21,129 deaths on Thursday.

According to the Health Ministry data, out of total 7,67,296 cases, 4,76,377 have recovered while 2,69,789 remain active in the country. With more COVID-19 patients recovering, the gap between the number of recovered cases and active cases has increased by two lakh.

The rate of recovery among the COVID-19 patients continues to increase and has touched 61.53 per cent. India, however, remains to be the third worst-affected country after the US and Brazil.

During the last 24 hours, 2,67,061 samples were tested, as the testing lab network continues to expand. As on date, more than 1,119 labs have enabled people to undergo coronavirus tests.

Maharashtra tops the chart and remains the worst hit state, with cases reaching up to 2,23,724 and 9,250 casualties so far, of which 198 occurred in the last 24 hours. Tamil Nadu remained the second worst hit with a total of 1,22,350 cases, including 1,700 deaths.

With 2,033 new coronavirus cases and 48 deaths in the last 24 hours, the national capital recorded a total tally of 1,04,864 and 3,213 deaths.

States with more than 10,000 cases include Gujarat with 38,333 cases and 1,993 deaths, Uttar Pradesh (31,156), Rajasthan (22,063), Madhya Pradesh (16,036), West Bengal (24,823), Haryana (18,690), Karnataka (28,877), Andhra Pradesh (22,259), Telangana (29,536) and Bihar (13,189) cases.

On the global front, the overall number of global COVID-19 cases has surpassed the 12 million mark, while the deaths have increased to more than 548,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.