Lockdown prevented 37k-78k deaths: Health Minister tells Lok Sabha

New Delhi, Sep 14: Coronavirus lockdown has prevented approximately 14-29 lakh cases and 37-78,000 deaths in four months, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan informed Parliament on Monday.

"India has collectively stood up to manage COVID-19 and successfully blunted the aggressive progression of COVID. It has been estimated that this decision prevented approximately 14-29 lakh cases and 37,000 to 78,000 deaths," the minister said.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister also said that the cases per million population in the country have also been limited to 3,328 in the country.

"With our endeavour to manage COVID-19, India has been able to limit its cases and deaths to 3,328 cases and 55 deaths per million population respectively, which is one of the lowest in the world as compared to similarly affected countries," the Minister said.

"Maximum cases and deaths primarily reported from Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, West Bengal, Bihar, Telangana, Odisha, Assam, Kerala and Gujarat. All these reported more than 1 lakh cases," he added.

Briefing Lok Sabha about the COVID-19 situation in the country, the health minister said that "77,512 recoveries registered in the last 24 hours in India taking the total number of recoveries to 37,80,107 and recovery rate to 78 per cent."

More than 60 per cent of active cases are concentrated in 5 states- Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu," he said.

Separated by plastic shields installed in front of their benches, members of Lok Sabha attended the first day of the Monsoon session being held amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

India's COVID-19 case tally crossed 48 lakh with 92,071 new infections being reported in a day, while over 37.8 lakh people have recuperated taking the national recovery rate to 78 per cent on Monday, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

The total coronavirus cases mounted to 48,46,427, while the death toll climbed to 79,722 with 1,136 more people succumbing to the infection in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The COVID-19 case fatality rate due to the coronavirus infection has further dropped to 1.64 per cent.

There are 9,86,598 active cases of COVID-19 in the country, while 37,80,107 people have recovered, the data stated.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 and it went past 40 lakh on September 5.