Health Minister asks medical staff to ensure treatment of non-COVID patients in emergency

In the thick of Coronavirus, Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Friday ensured that non-COVID-19 patients with a chronic illness will not be denied treatment. This came after meeting of Centre's Group of Ministers (GOM) on COVID-19 was held at Nirman Bhawan in Delhi over the situation arising amid the Coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat and other ministers were also present at the meeting.

Assuring non-COVID patients a proper treatment, Harsh Vardhan said,

"We were receiving complaints that patients with emergency situations were denied treatment at some hospitals. At the meeting, I asked medical superintendents to ensure that non-COVID-19 patients with chronic illness are not denied treatment." 

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READ: COVID-19 doubling rate improves to 6.2 days; growth rate declines by 40%: Health Ministry

COVID-19 doubling rate improves to 6.2 days; growth rate declines by 40%

The Ministry of Health on Friday said the average growth rate of COVID-19 cases has declined by 40% from mid-March to now while the doubling rate of the disease has gone up to 6.2 days according to data of last seven days. The Ministry informed that the doubling rate is lower than the national level in 19 States and Union Territories. The recovery rate of COVID-19 patients has also improved to 13.06%.

"The average growth factor of cases has been 1.2 from April 1, while during March 15-31, the average growth factor was 2.1. This decline of 40% has occurred due to an increase in testing, including testing of SARI (severe acute respiratory illness) and ILI (influenza like illness) cases," Joint Secretary of Health Lav Agarwal said.

He also said India has been doing better than others on outcome ratio — the ratio of the number of COVID-19 recoveries vs. number of deaths. "We are making efforts to further improve this ratio," the official said.

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