8,000 Covid-19 cases, virus has killed over 239 people
The Centre on Saturday claimed that without lockdown and containment measures, the country would have witnessed 8.2 lakh Covid-19 cases by April 15. The figure of positive cases would have gone up to 1.2 lakh with containment measures and no lockdown.
The country is in the third week of the world’s biggest ever lockdown involving 1.3 billion people with nearly 8,000 Covid-19 cases. The virus has killed over 239 people from across the country with Maharashtra topping the list of worst-hit (1,666 cases) and 110 fatality.
Talking to reporters here at a Press briefing, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health Ministry, reiterated importance of following social distancing measures and containment strategies which he said were like a social vaccination that can help the country from spreading the disease.
“Without these steps, Covid-19 cases could have registered a 41 per cent cumulative increase to 8.2 lakh cases by April 15. With containment measures and no lockdown, it could have gone up to 1.2 lakh till April 15,” said Agarwal, citing a statistical model to capture the projected cases.
He cited example of Agra saying it has emerged as the finest example in best practices in cluster management, where a smart city control room was converted into a war room to fight the outbreak of coronavirus from a person who had returned from Italy on February 25.
In the management plan under slogan “Corona Haarega, Agra Jeetega’’ (coronavirus will lose, Agra will win)”, a framework where all the city authorities coordinated, was deployed for a data-driven active contact screening and isolation of coronavirus cases.
A total of 1,248 teams were deployed, which surveyed over 9.3 lakh population by screening 1.65 lakh households in Agra, the first cluster in India where operations were carried out under containment and rapid emergency response.
In this initiative, the private sector also contributed, and the local authorities maintained the essentials supply chain. Active public-private partnership helped in setting up testing and treatment facilities and isolation centres, said the Health Ministry.
Agra had a total of 38 epicentres of the coronavirus impact were identified, and 10 epicentres have been closed so far.
A total of 4,054 quarantine centres were made functional -- 566 paid institutional quarantine centres, 3,060 free institutional quarantine centres and 428 official quarantine centres. Till April 11 in Agra, 5 cases have recovered and 87 are under watch.
Agarwal said, “Contact tracing began after February 25, after the arrival of a positive person from Italy.
“The authorities tracked his movement in Agra at his residence, at the restaurant he visited and also the factory he had gone to. The district administration identified the epicentre and hotspot and then a cluster containment plan was prepared.”