The government on Friday said the nationwide lockdown was a timely step, without which there would have been around one lakh COVID-19 cases in India by now.
In a press briefing officials said India’s doubling rate of COVID-19 cases has also improved to 10 days.
Dr VK Paul, Niti Aayog member and Chairman of Empowered Covid-19 Group said, “Our analysis shows lockdown has been effective in slowing the doubling rate of COVID 2019 and saved lives.”
“If we had not taken the decision of nation-wide lockdown, we would have had around 1 lakh COVID19 cases by now,” he said.
“As on Mar 21, our doubling time of cases was three days Results started showing on Mar 23, due to travel restrictions imposed earlier On Apr 6, further slowing of doubling rate became visible, thanks to nation-wide lockdown,” he added.
India registered 1,752 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, taking the total to 23,452 while the death toll rose to 723, the Health Ministry said.
Earlier, the ministry said 4,748 people have been cured from COVID-19, with a recovery rate of 20.57%.
“As on today, 15 districts in the country which earlier had cases have not reported any fresh cases since the last 28 days. Besides districts already highlighted, three new districts which got added to this list include: Durg & Rajnandgaon from Chattisgarh; and Shivpuri from Madhya Pradesh,” the Ministry said.
“Further, a total of 80 districts from 23 States/UTs have not reported any new cases since the last 14 days,” it said.
Describing the surveillance system as a “primary weapon” in the fight against COVID-19, Dr Sujeet Singh, Director, National Centre for Disease Control said about 9.45 lakh people are on surveillance system.
