DTMT NETWORK

Reacting to reports that questioned imposing of lockdown when there were few Covid cases and lifting it when there are a large number of Covid cases in the country, the health ministry has said that the period of the lockdown has been gainfully utilized to ramp up the health infrastructure in the country.

The ministry pointed out that in collective efforts of central as well as state governments, as many as 3027 dedicated Covid hospitals and Covid health centers along with 7013 Covid care centres have been identified.

The ministry informed that additionally, more than 2.81 lakh isolation beds,  more than 31,250 ICU beds, and 11387 oxygen supported beds have already been identified in dedicated Covid Hospitals and Covid Health Centres.

The ministry has stated that Government of India has supplied 65.0 lakh PPE coveralls and 101.07 lakh N95 masks to the states. Nearly 3 lakh PPE coveralls and 3 lakh N95 masks are now being manufactured per day by domestic producers, although they were not produced in the country earlier.

In addition, the Government is consulting and involving epidemiologists actively at all levels in order to combat the virus. The National Task Force (NTF) for Covid-19 constituted by the Indian Council of Medical Research has held 20 meetings  since mid-March 2020 and has systematically and effectively contributed towards the scientific and technical response to the pandemic.

A team of researchers from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), an autonomous Institute under the Department of Science &Technology (DST), Government of India, along with collaborator from IISc Bengaluru have developed a heuristic predictive model for the virus that provides short-term predictions about the evolution of the disease and the medical needs that are generated as a consequence.

"As on date, 45299 people have been cured taking our recovery rate to 40.32%. As on May 21, 2020, as many as 26,15920 samples have been tested and 103532 samples have been tested in the last 24 hours through 555 testing labs (391 in the government sector and 164 private labs),” informed the ministry.