The Union Health Ministry claimed on Saturday that if the lockdown and containment measures weren’t implemented then the country could have witnessed 8.2 lacs of cases till April 15.
According to a statistical analysis made by the Health and Family Welfare Ministry, if India had not imposed both lockdown and containment, the coronavirus cases would have grown by 41% to reach 8.2 lakh by April 15. And if only containment measures were taken without total lockdown, the number would have been 1.2 lakh by April 15. But as both lockdown and containment was imposed, the number has reached 7,447 on April 11.
The same was said by the Joint Secretary Lav Aggarwal during the regular press briefing. He said that lockdown and containment measures are necessary measures to keep the virus at the bay.
The Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said, “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 lacs of cases till April 15.”
He mentioned that the estimation is a result of statistical analysis by the ministry and it is not an ICMR study.
He further added, “It is a statistical rate growth based analysis. It is not an ICMR study. Before the national lockdown, the rate of growth in cases was 28.9 percent and if we had not announced nation lockdown but followed the usual preventive only, then we might have had 45,000 cases at this time.”
He asserted that the government is 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 planning to deal with COVID-19.
He mentioned that India’s response to Coronavirus has been proactive. “We have followed a graded approach. There are 586 COVID-19 dedicated hospitals and more than 1 lakh isolation beds and 11,500 ICU beds reserved for COVID-19 patients across the country. PPE’s, 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 said.
According to ministry data at 5 PM today, the total number of Coronavirus positive cases has reached 7,447, which went up by 1,035 in the last 24-hours. The virus has claimed the lives of 239 people while 642 people have been cured of Coronavirus.