On Monday, 9 March 2020, THE World Health Organization held a news conference on COVID-19 outbreak. Michael J. Ryan, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme told the press that there is no particular definition for ‘Recovered’ and it varies from country to country but, “usually two negative results of PCR within 24 hours means you no longer carry the virus.”
Maria Van Kerkhove, Technical Lead, WHO Health Emergencies Programme explains that along with two negative PCR tests, also the symptoms like fever, respiratory symptoms are checked. In China, the number of people who have recovered is 70 % of the reported cases, which is over 58,600 people and among those infected individuals, 80% of them have the chance to recover from the illness.
However, based on the reports from China, 80% of these cases fall under mild or moderate infection. Among the mild cases, most people develop fever, dry cough, aches etc. whereas, moderate infection includes a mild form of pneumonia or a severe form that requires oxygen, ventilation and ACMOS. People with chronic respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes have a higher mortality rate and chances to develop the infection.