India's COVID trend is 'reassuring' but challenge still persists: Health Ministry

New Delhi [India], August 18 (ANI): The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday said that the trends in COVID-19 cases over the last few days (13-17 August) have been "reassuring", however, it warned that India being a huge country with a massive population needs to be cautious as a challenge against COVID-19 still persists.
The government stated it in the context of aggressive testing and declining COVID mortality rate.
"If we look at the daily cases since August 13 till today, it has gone down from over 64,000 to 55,000. On August 14, the numbers were 64,000. On August 15, it came to 63,000, on August 16 it was 57,000 and 55,000 on August 17. There is a reducing trend of active cases. But in a pandemic time, five days' time is a very less time period. It is not much satisfactory but it shows that states and central government's efforts on Covid-19 containment strategy," said Rajesh Bhushan, secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
In case of COVID-19 deaths, the number indicates that on August 13 -- it was 1,007, August 14 -- it was 996, August 15 -- it was 944, August 16 -- it was 941 and August 17 -- it was 176. So, there is a downward trend if we look at the absolute COVID deaths, Bhushan said adding that case fatality rate too.
"This is a bit satisfactory but there is no reason to slacken our guard against coronavirus. We have to be alert and follow containment, surveillance, and testing at the same aggressive pace," said Bhushan.
In the last 24 hours, India saw a spike of 55,079 cases and 876 deaths due to the coronavirus. COVID-19 tally in the country has now reached 27,02,743 cases and 51,797 deaths. (ANI)