India would have 8.2 lakh COVID-19 cases by April 15 without lockdown, social distancing: Health Ministry

New Delhi: The Centre on Saturday said had the government not taken adequate measures to contain the spread of coronavirus then the country would have witnessed 8.2 lakh cases by April 15.

The Union Health Ministry said that lockdown and containment measures are important to fight COVID-19. “The Lockdown and containment measures are important to fight COVID-19. If we had not taken any measures then we might have had 8.2 lakh cases by April 15,” said Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry.

He highlighted that the estimation is a result of the statistical analysis and it is not an ICMR study

“It is a statistical rate of growth based analysis. It is not an ICMR study. Before the nationwide lockdown, the rate of growth in cases was 28.9 per cent and if we had not announced nationwide lockdown but followed the usual preventive methods only, then we might have had 45,000 cases at this time,” he said.

Correction: Without this lockdown and without containment measures, India would have had 8.2 lakh cases by 15th April: Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health Ministry #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/VhJjwBE56k

— ANI (@ANI) April 11, 2020

Aggarwal said that the government is following twin measures to contain the spread of coronavirus.

“We are following twin measures, at one hand we are promoting social distancing and lockdown and on the other hand we are ensuring containment action plan, contact tracing and other planning to deal with COVID-19,” he said.

Aggarwal said that India’s response to COVID19 has been proactive

“India’s response to COVID19 has been proactive. We have followed a graded approach. There are 586 COVID19 dedicated hospitals and more than 1 lakh isolation beds and 11,500 ICU beds reserved for COVID-19 patients across the country,” said Aggarwal.

“PPEs, ventilators and other critical medical supplies are being ensured by the centre to states. The containment action plan, contact tracing and other planning are being ensured,” he added.

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With 1,035 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the total number of coronavirus cases in the country soared to 7,447, the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry said on Saturday.

“A total of 1,035 COVID-19 cases were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases in the country to 7,447. There were 40 deaths during this period, taking the total toll to 239,” Aggarwal said.

“As many as 642 people have been cured of COVID-19,” he added. (ANI)