20 central teams to monitor hotspots

04/05/2020

Data from State Health Departments put the nationwide death toll at 1,389. The number of positive cases overall stood at 42,037, with 29, 965 active ones. Mumbai reported 441 new cases and 21 deaths, taking the total number of cases to 8,613 and fatalities to 343, an BMC official said.’

Fewer tests

India is one of 11 countries that have tested over one million samples, with the latest Health Ministry update reporting 74,000 tests a day. However, at just 758 tests per million of population, India ranks among countries that have tested the lowest fraction of their population.

In an interview to the Press Trust of India, NITI Aayog Member, V.K. Paul said extending India’s lockdown was part of a plan to curb infection transmission.

“...Real goal of lockdown was to suppress the chain of transmission of the virus. So, we will lose that if we abruptly end it,” Mr. Paul said.

On April 25, Mr. Paul, who also heads a key government empowered committee on medical management, presented a study to suggest that the lockdown had slowed the rate of transmission and increased the doubling time to about 10 days. He also presented an analysis showing that new cases would cease by May 16, though — as The Hindu had reported — this was a guesstimate and questioned by experts.

Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday that the rate of growth in new cases in India was steadying. “As per data today, for the past three days, the doubling rate is 12; for seven days 11.7 and for 14 days its 10.4. We need to adhere to strict physical distancing and hand hygiene to take lockdown 3.0 to a logical end,” a release quoted the Minister as saying.