India remains the third worst COVID-19 affected country in the world after the US and Brazil with over 9.68 lakh confirmed cases, the gap though between patients who have recovered and those still infected by the virus has almost quadrupled in the last one month.

The trend was noted from June 16 and July 16 (Thursday) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).

As per the data, a total of 63.25 percent COVID-19 patients have recovered so far while the active cases are 34.18 percent.

Accordingly, in one month, there is a gap of 29.7 percent between the recovered patients and active novel coronavirus cases. There were a total of 52.47 percent recovered cases on June 16 while the active cases were 44.65 percent. It showed a gap of around 7.82 percent then.

As per MoHF graph, from mid-June 2020 after crossing the 50 percent mark in recovery rate, there is a steady increase in the recovered patients and a decline in the number of active cases. Simultaneously, there has been a steady dip in active cases.

"63.25 percent of the COVID-19 patients have recovered so far and from around 45 percent in mid-June 2020 to around 34.18 percent, as of now."

A total of 20,783 people cured of COVID in the last 24 hours has taken the total number of recovered cases among COVID-19 patients to 6,12,814, said the Ministry data, adding the gap between recovered patients and active COVID-19 cases has further increased to 2,81,668.

A graded, pre-emptive and pro-active approach under the ‘Whole of Government" strategy has been adopted by the Central government along with the states and UTs for prevention, containment and management of COVID-19, the Ministry said.

"The collective efforts are regularly reviewed and monitored at the highest level. The targeted measures have contributed to a steady decline in the number of active cases."

As on date, the actual caseload of COVID-19 patients in the country is only 3,31,146. These contribute to a little more than a third (34.18 per cent) of total cases detected so far.

The data further shows that only two states-- Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu-- constitute 48.15 per cent of the country's total active case load. Maharashtra remained the worst-hit state, with 2,75,640 cases and 10,928 casualties followed by Tamil Nadu with a total 1,51,820 cases, including 2,167 deaths.

Of the total 36 states and Union Territories (UTs), the data says, only 10 states constitute 84.62 per cent of the total active case load.

States with more than 10,000 cases included Gujarat (44,552), Uttar Pradesh (41,383), Rajasthan (26,437), Madhya Pradesh (19,643), West Bengal (34,427), Haryana (23,306), Karnataka (47,253), Andhra Pradesh (35,451), Telangana (39,342), Assam (18,666), and Bihar (20,612).

"The Centre continues to handhold these states in matters of containment and effective clinical management of the affected persons," the Ministry said.

Actual case load of COVID-19, the ministry said, has remained limited and manageable in the country due to proactive measures of containment including house-to-house survey, perimeter control activities, timely contact tracing and surveillance of containment zones, aggressive testing and timely diagnosis, and effective clinical management of the moderate and severe cases through a well implemented standard of care protocol substantially increasing their chances of recovery.

The joint efforts by the Centre and the state or UT governments of increasing the testing capacity, ramping up the health infrastructure, prioritizing surveillance in the Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) or Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) cases, and ensuring mapping of the aged population and people with comorbidities have led to continuous improvement in the recovery rates seen across India.

As per the data, the hospital infrastructure to treat COVID-19 consists of 1,381 dedicated COVID hospitals in category-I; 3,100 dedicated COVID healthcare centres in category-II; and 10,367 COVID care centres in category-III. "They together have a capacity of 46,666 ICU beds."

The collaborative strategy among Centre and the states has also ensured that the growth of COVID cases is restricted to pockets in the country, the Ministry said.

The revelation comes as India on Thursday recorded the highest single-day spike of 32,695 novel coronavirus (Covid-19) cases and 606 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the tally to 9,68,876 cases with a death total of 24,915.(IANS)