The total Coronavirus infected cases have spiked up to 7,447 in India on Saturday. The death toll is at 239 whereas 642 patients have recovered and have been discharged.
New Delhi| The Union Health Ministry on Saturday said that India would have had around 2 lakh cases by now if the government had not imposed a nation-wide lockdown.
Addressing the daily presser on Covid-19, the Joint secretary Lav Agarwal said, “Lockdown and containment measures are important to fight Covid-19. If we had not taken any measures then we might have had two lakh cases at this time.”
Speaking on the availability of health infrastructure to fight the pandemic, Lav Agarwal said that there are one lakh isolation beds and 11,500 ICU beds across the country at the current moment specially reserved for Covid-19 patients.
Referring to the government’s response as “proactive”, he said that they have followed a graded approach. “There are 586 Covid-19 dedicated hospitals and more than one lakh isolation beds in the country,” Agarwal said.
The total Coronavirus infected cases have spiked up to 7,447 in India on Saturday. The death toll is at 239 whereas 642 patients have recovered and have been discharged.
In the last 24 hours, India reported 1,035 new cases with 40 deaths due to the coronavirus.
Prime Minister Modi had a discussion with all chief ministers of states and territories on Saturday about whether the lockdown should be extended and what other measures the states are taking to control the spread of coronavirus. The central government is considering the request made by the majority of the CMs to extend the lockdown till 30 April.
“During the video-conferencing on coronavirus in India with state CMs today, most states requested Prime Minister Modi to extend the lockdown for two more weeks. The central government is considering this request,” KS Dhatwalia, Government’s Principal Spokesperson tweeted.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal also tweeted after the discussion saying, “PM has taken correct decision to extend lockdown. Today, India’s position is better than many developed countries because we started lockdown early. If it (lockdown) is stopped now, all gains would be lost. To consolidate, it is important to extend it.”
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