17.04.20
00:00
Economics
8.2 lakh Indians saved due to lockdown steps: Health ministry
"According to a statistical analysis by us, India would have registered a 41 per cent cumulative rise in the number of cases, taking the total to 2.08 lakh on April 11 and 8.2 lakh by April 15 had there been no lockdown or other containment measures," the officer said. With containment measutes but no lockdown, the number of cases could have risen to 1.2 lakh till April 15 and to 45,370 on April 11 going by the peak growth rate of 28.9 per cent seen befote the lockdown, he said.
On Friday, when asked about an "ICMR report" that stated India would have had up to 8.2 lakh COVID-19 positive cases by April 15 had it not been for the 21-day nationwide lockdown, Agarwal had said there was no such report. The question on the purported *ICMR report' was asked after MEA's Secretary (West) V ikas S warup, while briefing foreign media, had reportedly said that without the lockdown, there could have been 8,20,000 cases by 15 April. Stressing on the importance of social distancing, lockdown and other efforts in the battle against coronavirus, Agarwal said, "Since we started promoting social distancing and implemented lockdown from March 25 along with other containment measures, there has been a decrease in cases and we have 7,447 coronavirus cases till date"
Agarwal also asserted that the country has no shortage of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, cited by many as a viable therapeutic solution to counter the coronavirus infection.
TV BRICS reports with reference to Trinity Mirror.