3.6.20

India’s cases far away from peak: ICMR

With timely and effective interventions, India has managed to keep the number of coronavirus cases and fatalities low and is far away from the peak of Covid spread, the ICMR has said, underlining that the country had positioned itself better than other nations.

“We are very far away from the peak. India has been very good at reducing mortality. You will get to see the data in a week,” ICMR scientist Nivedita Gupta said.

Asked if India has entered the community transmission phase, Gupta said, “Instead of using the word community transmission, it is important to understand the extent of spread of the disease and where we stand in comparison with other countries.” She said ICMR is conducting a sero-survey of 34,000 people. The results will be out by the end of this week or early next week.

Over 1.20 lakh samples are being tested for Covid-19 on an average per day and at present there are 476 government and 205 private labs testing for the virus. Gupta said in the beginning of the pandemic, India was dependent on the imports for sourcing kits, but now their availability and outreach have increased substantially because the kits are now being locally produced.

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