Without curbs, cases must have mounted to 1 L by now; 10 L people under observation
The Government on Friday said the nationwide lockdown was a timely step without which the cases would have skyrocketed to over one lakh by now. Officials also claimed that nearly ten lakh people who have a travel history or were in touch with corona positive patients, are under observation.
While maintaining that India has fared better than many countries in the fight against the pandemic on various parameters, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said the virus outbreak is under control in the country and thanks to a robust surveillance network with implementation of the lockdown and other containment measures.
Nearly ten lakh people, who have either returned from abroad or were in touch with corona positive patients, are under surveillance.
“Had we not taken the decision to impose nationwide lockdown, we would have had around one lakh Covid-19 cases by now. Cases are now doubling in every 10 days and this is a reasonable estimate,” Niti Aayog member VK Paul, who is also the Chairman of the Government’s Empowered Committee-I said at a Press briefing here.
“As on March 21, our doubling time of cases was three days. Results started showing on March 23, due to travel restrictions imposed earlier. On April 6, further slowing of doubling rate became visible, thanks to the nationwide lockdown,” he added.
He said the decision to impose the lockdown was timely and asserted that the curve has begun to flatten.
“Nationwide lockdown helped take us away from the exponential growth curve and thereby contain the growth of Covid-19 cases,” he said.
“Besides containing the spread, augmenting testing and improving preparedness, the nation has brought about a massive behavioural change through a ‘’Jan Andolan’’ (mass movement),” he said.
Vardhan too echoed similar views saying the Government has saved India from going into stage 3 or community transmission stage. “The positive cases are not rising more than 4 per cent...We were all worried if we are in stage 3, but we have been able to save the country largely from going into stage 3,” said Vardhan, adding “we have all the information connected with clusters and hotspots.”
Detailing the country’s progress in the past 3.5 months in tackling Covid-19, Vardhan said, “On January 8, we held our first meeting, and today, in comparison with many other countries, India has done very well... We have fewer cases per million percentage. We have a mortality of 3 per cent, which is less. Recovery rate of patients, who contracted viral infection, is better than the world. In March, the doubling rate of coronavirus cases was 3 days; today it is close to 9 days.”
Responding to the issue of faulty testing kits, he said, “We will return the testing kits to their country of origin, and we have not paid money yet. Strategies were made to use these kits in hotspots.
Paul also cited a study which that there is no spike in utilisation of fever and cold medicines in the country.
“Our routine surveillance of pneumonia and fever shows that there is no spike. There is no crowding of ICUs or lines outside the hospitals. A study was done on whether the utilisation of medicine used for fever and cold has increased. It has not,” he said.
He pointed out that even after the testing was increased in the country, no proportional increase in cases was seen. “No need to fear hidden spikes in cases,” he insisted.