Covid-19 death toll in India crosses 50,000-mark

The coronavirus-linked death count across India crossed the 50,000-mark today with the addition of 941 fresh fatalities in the last 24 hours.

The death toll now stands at 50,291 while the total tally of Covid-19 cases mounted to 26.47 lakh with 57,981 new infections recorded in the last 24 hours, reports our New Delhi correspondent, quoting the Indian health ministry data.

The number of active Covid-19 cases stands at 6,76,900 as a total of 19,19,842 people have so far recovered, according to the data.

India has already overtaken Britain as the country that has recorded the world's fourth-highest number of Covid-linked deaths, behind the United States, Brazil and Mexico.

However, India has one of the lowest Covid-19 Case Fatality Rate (CFR) globally, the health ministry data added.

The USA crossed 50,000 deaths in 23 days, Brazil in 95 days and Mexico in 141 days while India took 156 days to reach that figure.

According to the country's health ministry officials there has been sustained focus of federal and state governments on improved and effective clinical treatment in hospitals, supervised home isolation, use of non-invasive oxygen support and improved services of the ambulances for ferrying patients for prompt and timely treatment.

Efforts of health workers have ensured effective surveillance and tracking progress of the patients in supervised home isolation.

Clinical management skills of doctors treating Covid-19 patients have been upgraded by active technical guidance through tele-consultation sessions by domain knowledge experts from All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.

With aggressive testing, India is rapidly moving towards completing three crore Covid-19 tests, health ministry officials added.