Cases' doubling reduced after lockdown, growth factor down 40%: Govt

The Union Health Ministry on Friday said that the doubling rate of COVID-19 cases in the country has reduced with the imposition of lockdown. Joint Secretary, Health, Lav Agarwal said that the national doubling rate of coronavirus infections now stands at 6.2 days as compared to 3 days before the lockdown was imposed.

New Delhi:The Union Health Ministry on Friday said that before lockdown, COVID-19 cases were doubling in three days but the last 7 days' data shows that it is doubling in 6.2 days and in 19 states and Union Territories, the case doubling rate is less than the country's average.

At the daily press briefing, Joint Secretary, Health, Lav Agarwal said the reduction in the doubling rate is the product of the management of the health crisis at the field level. He said that 5 lakh rapid antibody test kits are being distributed to states, which are burdened with a high number of positive cases.

He also added that the growth factor in the new cases has declined by 40 percent. The decline in the growth rate is concluded from the data from April 1 to mid April, which recorded 1.2 per cent growth rates, as compared to 2.1 per cent from March 15 to March 30.

Meanwhile, there were 1,007 fresh COVID-19 cases, and 23 deaths in last 24 hours.

Referring to the recovery of the patients, Agarwal said that 13.06 per cent is the recovery rate of patients from coronavirus infection and the outcome ratio, which is cases recovered from the viral infection, is better than other countries and the government is trying to improve it further.

Emphasizing on the health infrastructure to fight the infection, he said: "1,919 dedicated COVID-19 hospitals with 1.73 lakh isolation beds, 21,800 ICU beds are ready in the country."

An Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) official said 3,19,400 COVID-19 tests have been conducted so far and 28,340 tests in the past 24 hours.

(IANS report)