New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday said that Tablighi Jamaat workers from Delhi's Nizamuddin cluster have affected 23 states and union territories so far.
A few states including Tamil Nadu (84 per cent case), Telangana (79 per cent), Delhi (63 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (59 per cent) and Andhra Pradesh (61 per cent) have been severely affected by Jaamat attendees.
"Out of India's total COVID-19 positive cases, 4291 (29.8 per cent) are connected to Jaamat and from a single source of Nizamuddin Markez cluster," said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the Health Ministry.
Further, 40,000 Jaamat workers and their contacts have been quarantined across India. Significantly, the nation also witnessed a positive trend in its continuous fight against COVID-19 pandemic.
"The continuous lockdown and social distancing registered positive results in 47 districts from 23 states," said Agarwal. He said that no positive case has been reported in the last 28 days from Mahe in Puducherry and Kodagu in Karnataka. Further, 22 districts from 12 states have not registered even a single COVID-19 positive case in the last 14 days.
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Addressing a daily media briefing of the Health Ministry in New Delhi, Aggrawal said that India has registered a 3.3 per cent mortality rate of COVID-19 patients."Age-wise analysis of the victims said that 14.4 per cent death has been reported in the age group of 0-45 years. 10.4 per cent of victims were in the age group 45-60 years. Between 60-75 years it is 33.1 per cent and 75 years and above 42.2 per cent death rate," added Agarwal.
According to the Ministry of Health, a total of 957 new cases and 43 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours. As of Saturday, India crossed 14378 mark wherein 12289 are active cases and 1992 (13.85 present) persons have been cured or discharged. However, 488 fatalities have been recorded so far.
Meanwhile, after reviewing the worldwide testing methodology, National Taskforce of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has issued a guideline to all states for COVID-19 testing involving Real-Time PCR Test (RT-PCR) and antibody tests.
"Real-Time PCR is the gold standard frontline test and it gives confirm result for COVID-19 test whereas antibody tests are being used basically for assessing the prevalence of an infection in a particular area," Agarwal said.
He further added that the government was using the rapid antibody test mainly for surveillance and epidemiological purpose. "Rapid antibody test can be used in hotspot areas and basically in those areas where coronavirus cases have not emerged so far," said Agarwal.
Agarwal during the press conference also highlighted the Kasargod (Kerala) model in containing COVID-19 pandemic. "Tracking of home quarantine using Geospatial tracking, campaign for promoting social distance, use of drones were the highlights of their containment strategy," said Agarwal.
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Meanwhile, Dr Ratan R Gangakhedkar from Indian Council of Medical Research said that ICMR is doing a comprehensive study on the use and effect of Hydroxychloroquine. "We are doing an observation. Some frontline health workers took the medicine as precautions but many of them have shown some negative impact so we are doing an observation," said Dr Gangakhedkar.
In a related development, Union Home Minister Amit Shah later in the evening had a review meeting with top Home Ministry officials over coronavirus. Sources informed Shah has asked all the officials to keep close monitoring in connection with the nationwide lockdown measures.
