Four states recover faster from Covid than rest of the country: Data

Delhi is among the states with the lowest recovery time of three days of Covid-infected patients. The national average recovery time is five days

A few days ago, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reduced the isolation period of individuals infected by Covid from 10 days to five. India also published revised guidelines, directing those under home isolation to wait for at least a week from testing positive and having no fever for three successive days to end home isolation. Seven days is usually considered the time for recovery from the new variant. However, nationally, a Business Standard analysis shows, the recovery time has come down to five days.

The recovery time is calculated by comparing the number of active infections with daily recoveries. The cumulative days when active infections are higher than daily recoveries is considered as the recovery time. For instance, on January 5, there were 285,401 active infections in the country, nearly 229,122 recovered within the next five days. On the other hand, on January 4, while there were 214,004 infections, cumulative daily recoveries for the next six days were higher at 248,328.

During April 2021, the recovery time for the country was nine days. At the peak of the first wave, the country was registering a recovery time of 10 days.

State-wise, there is more variation in recovery time. Four of the 35 states and union territories under consideration had a lesser recovery time than the national average. The national capital was among them. The recovery time in Delhi, the lowest in the country, was three days as per state data. There were 39,873 active infections in Delhi on January 7, 36,124 recovered over the next three days until January 10.

The only other state to register a recovery in three days was Uttarakhand. West Bengal and Andaman and Nicobar Islands witnessed a recovery in four days.

The recovery time in Karnataka was 18 days, and Telangana showed a recovery in 14 days.

State-wide variation in recoveries has been a feature since the start of the pandemic, owing to the absence of any standard guidelines to report a recovery or a second confirmatory test. The ICMR, in 2020, had done away with the need for a confirmatory test to confirm recovery.