India’s COVID-19 doubling rate now at 12.2 days
New Delhi, May 13: The doubling time of COVID-19 cases has now improved to 12.2 days from 10.9 days, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said highlighting the need for enhanced surveillance and contact-tracing in view of migrants and expats returning home.
Vardhan said the fatality rate is 3.2 per cent while the recovery rate is progressively increasing and stands at 31.74 per cent.
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Reviewing measures for management of COVID-19 cases in Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh with MoS for Health Ashwini Choubey, he asked the states and UTs to focus on surveillance, testing, contact-tracing and timely treatment of all the returnees.
Vardhan
suggested
that
the
Aarogya
Setu
mobile
application
be
made
compulsory
for
all
the
returnees
for
better
surveillance
and
suitable
medical
interventions,
the
ministry
said.
According
to
the
Health
Ministry,
the
death
toll
due
to
COVID-19
rose
to
2,293
and
the
positive
cases
climbed
to
70,756,
registering
an
increase
of
87
deaths
and
3,604
cases
in
the
last
24
hours
till
Tuesday
8am.
"While the doubling time in the past 14 days was 10.9, it has improved to 12.2 in the last three days," Vardhan was quoted as saying in a statement.
Of the total active cases, as on Monday, 2.37 per cent patients are in ICU, 0.41 per cent on ventilators and 1.82 per cent on oxygen support, he said.
The minister said the testing capacity has increased to 1 lakh tests per day with 347 government laboratories and 137 private labs.
"Cumulatively, 17,62,840 tests have been done so far for COVID-19. Whereas, 86,191 samples were tested on Monday," he said.
The Centre, states and UTs are taking cohesive efforts to combat the coronavirus and "this provides us the assurance that the country is well-prepared to face any eventuality due to COVID-19", he said.
During the meeting, the Union health minister also stressed on ramping up surveillance for severe acute respiratory infections (SARI)/Influenza Like Illness (ILI), which will help in identifying any possible hidden infections at an early stage and in its timely containment.
He
praised
the
work
done
for
SARI/ILI
surveillance
and
contact-tracing
in
Uttarakhand.
Ladakh
stated
that
it
has
started
mobile
medical
vans
in
far-flung
areas
for
non-COVID
services.
RK
Mathur,
the
LG
of
Ladakh,
said
his
administration
is
keeping
doctors
and
police
personnel
in
reserve
to
deploy
on
rotational
basis.
Vardhan pointed out that as the usage tobacco is fairly high in Ladakh, spitting in public places needs to be banned as per the guidelines issued earlier.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said Ayurvedic immunity boosters have been provided to front-line health workers, police personnel and paramilitary forces.
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The states and UTs were advised to keep adequate stock of essential medicines and timely release of salaries and incentives to boost the morale of front-line health workers.
The meeting was also attended by Jammu and Kashmir LG Girish Chandra Murmu and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.