Corona Battle 

Doubling rate of cases down: GovtHealth Ministry says the rate is less than national average In 19 States and Union Territories

Preventive measures: Firefighters spray disinfectants near India Gate, in New Delhi on Friday. — Photo: ANI

PTI

New Delhi  18.04.2020

The Union Health Ministry said on Friday the rate at which the number of coronavirus cases in the country was becoming double in the last one week was 6.2 days, as against three days before the nationwide lockdown was imposed.

Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal claimed that India has been doing better than many other countries on the outcome ratio, which is the number of recoveries from coronavirus infection versus the number of deaths.

“If 80 per cent of the patients in India are recovering and in 20 per cent cases deaths are being reported, then by that standard India has been doing a little better than many other nations on the outcome ratio,” he said.

“Before lockdown, the doubling rate of coronavirus cases was 3 days. Going by the number of cases in the last seven days, the doubling rate has been 6.2 days. In 19 States and Union Territories the doubling rate is less than the national average,” he said. The health ministry official also said the average growth factor of cases from April 1 has been 1.2, whereas between March 15 and 31 it was 2.1.

This decline of 40 per cent was due to increase in testing, including that of cases with severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) and influenza-like illness (ILI), Agarwal said. He also informed reporters that 1,919 dedicated Covid-19 hospitals with 1.73 lakh isolation beds and 21,800 ICU beds have been readied till now.

Agarwal further informed that five lakh rapid antibody testing kits, which arrived from China on Thursday, are being distributed to states for districts with high case burden. Head of Epidemiology and Communicable diseases at Indian Council of Medical Research