Centre confident on pulling brakes on spread of Covid-19

A month after the imposition of the nationwide lockdown to check the spread of coronavirus, a high-level Group of Ministers (GoM) was on Saturday apprised that as of now, the death rate is around 3.1 per cent while the recovery rate is more than 20 per cent, which is comparatively better when compared to most of the other countries.

In the past few days, many senior officials have reiterated that the Covid-19 disease is under control, given the rate of doubling of cases, which has increased from 3 days to 9.1 days within a month.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan claimed that India has been saved from entering the Stage 3.

These recent statements, coupled with the Centre's recent decision to open shops with limited manpower, indicate a strong sense of confidence of having pulled the brakes on the spread of the infection.

The 13th meeting of the high-level Group of Ministers (GoM) on Covid-19 was held under the chairpersonship of Harsh Vardhan. The meeting was also attended by Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep S. Puri, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and other senior government functionaries.

The GoM was informed that the improved recovery rate coupled with 3.1 per cent mortality rate may be taken as a positive effect of the lockdown in the country, along with the cluster management and containment strategy.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has also consistently maintained that India is not lagging behind in testing, and after having conducted over 5 lakh tests, the rate of positive cases is nearly 4.5 per cent, which has remained unchanged from before the imposition of the lockdown.

V.K. Paul, Chairman of the Empowered Group 1, said, "The country's testing strategy has stood the test of time, and the volume of testing has been adequate; despite increase in testing, proportion of positive cases has not increased. There's no need to fear the hidden spike in cases, the disease is under control."

Sujeet Kumar, Director, National Centre for Disease Control, said, "We had started our surveillance mechanism even before the first Covid-19 case was reported in India; this played an important role in helping us contain the spread of the infection." IANS