COVID-19: Saved country from entering stage-III says Health Minister

New Delhi, Apr 25: Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Friday said that the efforts in tackling COVID-19 have saved the country from going into stage-III.

During a video-conference with the health ministers of states, he said that the positive cases of coronavirus were stable at around four per cent of the total samples tested, which was a good indicator when compared to the rest of the countries.

The minister said that we are all worried if we are in stage-III, but we have been able to save the country largely going into that stage. We have all the information connected with clusters and hotspots, he added.

The ICMR is conducting controlled tests of the kits imported from China. The kits were distributed to the states but were found to be faulty. We will return these kits if they are found to be faulty, We have not even made payments for the kits, he said.

He said that the rapid antibody tests were to be used for surveillance purposes in the coronavirus hotspots and not for diagnosis.

We have fewer cases per million, We have a mortality rate of 3 per cent which is less. The recovery rate of patients who contracted the infection is better when compared to the rest of the world, he added. In March the doubling rate was 3 days and today it is close to 9 days he added.