The government on Thursday said that the rise in coronavirus cases in the country has been more or less linear, not exponential.
C.K. Mishra, Chairman of Empowered Group 2, said, ” One crucial weapon we employed during the 30-day lockdown period is RT-PCR testing. On March 23, we had done 14,915 tests across the country and on April 22, we did more than 5 lakh tests I.e., around 33 times in 30 days.”
“Post lockdown, while no. of new positive COVID19 cases has increased by 16 times, testing has increased by 24 times. India has done better than majority of developed countries, with respect to the % of test cases yielding positive results,” said Mishra.
“Our first goal as regards hospitalization has been to ensure that the minimum no. of people need to come to hospital, using social distancing, discipline and taking care of the vulnerable such as the elderly and those with co-morbidities,” he said.
“The second goal is to ensure enough infrastructure so that every person who needs to come to hospital is treated well, cured and sent back. Every district in the country is now working towards that,” he added.
“As on today, we have 12 districts that did not have a fresh Covid-19 case in the last 28 days or more and no new case of coronavirus was reported from 78 districts in the last 14 days,” said Luv Agarwal, Joint Secretary at the Union Health Ministry.
“With the promulgation of the Ordinance to amend the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, no person shall indulge in any act of violence against healthcare professionals or cause any damage to any property. If found guilty, the person can be punished with a fine or a jail term,” Luv Agarwal added.
