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Daily media briefing on #COVID19 situation in the country

@MoHFW_INDIA @COVIDNewsByMIB

#IndiaFightsCorona #Lockdown2

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Collection, harvesting and processing of Minor Forest Produce / Non-timber Forest Produce by Scheduled Tribes and other forest dwellers in forest areas have been exempted from lockdown restrictions - @HMOIndia

➡️ #IndiaFightsCorona

.@IndiaPostOffice has transported more than 100 tons of medicines and medical equipment to hospitals and other institutions. Domestic and international post during #lockdown has been delivered by adopting special measures. - @HMOIndia ➡️ #IndiaFightsCorona

.@IndiaPostOffice is ensuring that people receive pension payments and other essential welfare payments from the government. Hundreds of crore of benefits are being provided at door-step of beneficiaries, through #IndiaPost Payment banks - @HMOIndia

1,749 people have been cured

A total of 13,387 #COVID2019 cases have been reported so far

In last 24 hours - 1,007 cases, 23 deaths

- @MoHFW_INDIA ➡️ #IndiaFightsCorona

Before lockdown, doubling rate of #COVID2019 cases was 3 days

For last 7 days, doubling rate has been 6.2 days

In 19 states and UTs, doubling rate is less than national average

- @MoHFW_INDIA

➡️ #IndiaFightsCorona

Average growth factor of cases has been 1.2 from April 1, while during Mar 15 - Mar 31, the average growth factor was 2.1

This decline of 40% has occurred due to increase in testing, including testing of SARI and ILI cases

- @MoHFW_INDIA #IndiaFightsCorona

India has been doing better than many other countries on outcome ratio - ratio of no. of #COVID2019 recoveries vs. no. of deaths.

We are taking efforts to further improve this ratio.

- JS, @MoHFW_INDIA ➡️ #IndiaFightsCorona

5 lakh rapid antibody testing kits are being distributed to states and districts where high case burden has been observed - @MoHFW_INDIA ➡️ #IndiaFightsCorona

Group of Ministers held a meeting today to chalk out further direction with respect to #Lockdown2. Efforts of S&T institutes in the areas of diagnosis, vaccines, drugs, hospital equipment accessories and general wellness have been reviewed. - @MoHFW_INDIA #IndiaFightsCorona

.@CSIR_IND, @DBTIndia, @IndiaDST and @DAEIndia are working to increase testing capacity. Our focus is on developing new, rapid and accurate diagnostic testing kits which can give result in 30 minutes, innovative pooling strategies and indigenous synthesis of kits.- @MoHFW_INDIA

We are also working on viral sequencing and vaccine development. India is working with global partners so that effective vaccines can be developed. We are trying to speed up these processes. - @MoHFW_INDIA #IndiaFightsCorona

https://twitter.com/PIB_India/status/1251103915015204864

We need to also work on development of effective drugs; there is no proven drug now. India's traditional knowledge in boosting immunity is also being taken into account, as part of a multi-pronged effort.

- @MoHFW_INDIA ➡️ #IndiaFightsCorona

CSIR labs are developing indigenous designs for PPEs, oxygen concentrators, ventilators and other ancillary support devices. Working on indigenous manufacturing of RT-PCR kits and rapid antibody kits, will be able to make 10 lakh kits / month of each type by May - @MoHFW_INDIA

Some forecasting tools have been shared with the states, based on which states can assess the future requirement of COVID dedicated hospitals and care centres based on expected #COVID2019 case load - @MoHFW_INDIA ➡️ #IndiaFightsCorona

1,919 dedicated #COVIDHospitals and COVID Health Centres have been set up in the country, with capacity of 1.73 lakh isolation beds and 21,800 ICU beds - JS, @MoHFW_INDIA ➡️ #IndiaFightsCorona

A total of 3,19,400 tests have been done till yesterday

28,340 tests were done yesterday, out of which 23,932 were done in 183 labs of ICMR network and remaining 4,408 tests were done in 80 private labs

- @ICMRDELHI ➡️ #IndiaFightsCorona

We have issued detailed guidelines to states to make non-elective and emergency medical services available in facilities other than dedicated #COVIDHospitals. Our effort is to minimize spread of infection. - JS, @MoHFW_INDIA replying to a query

https://twitter.com/PIBMumbai/status/1250027447476604929

We had recommended #PooledTesting for the purpose of surveillance, which can be used where positivity rate is low. We had not recommended this for individual diagnosis since this may work out to be costlier for individual patients. - @ICMRDELHI, replying to a media query

It will take some time for us to know the predominant quasi-species of #NovelCoronavirus in the country. But mutations are not likely to make potential vaccines ineffective, as i) all sub-types of the virus have same enzymes & ii) the virus does not mutate very fast - @ICMRDELHI

ICMR is going to conduct a study in order to find out the potential effect of BCG vaccine in the fight against #COVID2019. Till the results of the study are out and evidence is obtained, we will not recommend the vaccine even to health workers.

- @ICMRDELHI representative