New Delhi, May 22: The number of COVID-19 cases averted due to the lockdown is in the range of 14-29 lakh, while the number of lives saved is between 37,000 and 78,000, the government said on Friday citing various studies, and asserted that the unprecedented shutdown has paid “rich dividends” in the fight against the pandemic.
The lockdown in India has been a timely, graded, proactive and pre-emptive public health measure to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and has been part and parcel of the government’s overall strategy, Dr V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, and Chairman, Empowered Group 1, said at a media briefing on the COVID-19 situation.
The government imposed the nationwide lockdown from March 25 to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus and it is currently in its fourth phase.
Like the number of cases, the growth rate of number of COVID-19 deaths too has fallen significantly due to the lockdown, marking a notable difference between pre-lockdown and post-lockdown situations, he said.
At the briefing, Pravin Srivastava, Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation gave model-based estimates on COVID-19 cases and deaths which have been prevented due to the lockdown.
As per Boston Consulting Group's model, the lockdown saved between 1.2 lakh and 2.1 lakh lives, while the number of COVID-19 cases averted is between 36 lakh and 70 lakh, he said.
According to Public Health Foundation of India, nearly 78,000 lives have been saved due to the lockdown, Srivastava said.
Citing a model by two independent economists, he said that around 23 lakh COVID-19 cases and 68,000 deaths have been averted due to the lockdown.
Some independent experts, including retired scientists, have calculated that around 15.9 lakh cases and 51,000 deaths have been averted due to the lockdown, Srivastava said.
A joint study by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and the Indian Statistical Institute found that around 20 lakh COVID-19 cases and 54,000 deaths were averted due to lockdown, he said.
The number of COVID-19 cases averted due to the lockdown is in the range of 14-29 lakh, while the number of lives saved is between 37,000 and 78,000, the official said.
“We are fully confident that the lockdown, with full public cooperation, has reaped rich dividends,” Srivastava said.
The strong defence of the lockdown, comes a day after the health ministry said the period of lockdown has been gainfully utilized to ramp up the health infrastructure, with around 3,027 dedicated COVID-19 hospitals and 7,013 care centres being readied across the country to fight the disease.
The announcement on Thursday came after some media reports questioned the country's preparedness to deal with the highly infectious disease.
"There are reports in a section of the media about some decisions of the government regarding the lockdown implementation and response to COVID-19 management. The period of the lockdown has been gainfully utilised to ramp up the health infrastructure in the country," the ministry had said.
Addressing the press briefing on Friday, joint secretary in the health ministry Lav Agarwal said 48,534 COVID-19 patients, which is about 41 per cent of the total cases, have recovered so far. As many as 3,234 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours, he said’
The COVID-19 mortality rate has dropped from 3.13 per cent on May 19 to 3.02 per cent as focus was on containment measures andclinical management of cases, Agarwal said.
An ICMR official said 27,55,714 tests for COVID-19 have been conducted till 1 pm Friday with 1,03,829 tests done in one day. Over 1 lakh tests for COVID-19 have been done each day for the last four days, the official said.
The growth rate of novel coronavirus cases witnessed a steep decline from Apr 4 when lockdown put a brake on the speed of increase of cases, V K Paul said.
The number of COVID-19 cases would have risen exponentially had the lockdown not been implemented, he said, adding that the doubling rate of cases was 3.4 days when the lockdown started and it is 13.3 days at present.
The COVID-19 outbreak in India has remained confined to limited areas with 80 per cent of active cases in just five states, Paul said
He said around 80 pc of COVID-19 deaths have been in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Delhi.
Comments
Islam is not a religion to add membership to show the population.
It is a true religion to practice guidelines of only one creator Allah (S.B.T). Accepting and quitting Islam will not make any difference for true Muslims. One who understands his creator will not reject his religion even if he dies because his life starts after death which is unlimited. The life in earth is so short that we can compare to hotel stay for a day.
Rejecting Islam means he is rejecting his creator Al Mighty Allah and it doesn’t mean he is quitting from Islam
Islam is the second largest religion in the world only in Qty. where is true Muslim? very few in qty
Accepting Islam doesn’t mean becoming membership in Islam. It is accepting his creator and his guidelines to practice successful and peaceful life and thereby prepare for his permanent life which starts after his death.
For true Muslims there is no fear to die. because he is always prepared and waiting for his death
May Almighty Allah guide us True path and success.
This is really unfortunate. He has chnged in religion only to get the verdict in his favor. Suppose he wont get it, will he convert to Christianity or Budhism or Sikhism? Will the media give same preference in case he would have changed to religion other than Hinduism or if any Hindu converted to another religion. This issue is now on the top agenda of Media and they are publishing it by applying ghee + butter. None knows truth behind it. However this family will not succeed in this world and the life after death if they convert to other religion though none can force them to change the religion. Islam or Muslims will not lose anything if this family converts to another religion. But this family will lose and they will realise it sooner or later. Let us pray God to keep them on right path and not on the path of Sathan.
he would have converted to christinaty so he can get international help from devil DOnald trump or vatican pope, lol religion is your choice, but the main point here the god look at is your heart, how you treat mankind & how you obey GOD command, how to spend you money & how you live..people who worship idol will be throwen to hell forever there is no excuse and the punishment is very severe, if your an eithest there will be a change & it depend on GOD & also how you lived in earth.
The religion is set of law decreed by the CREATOR/ ONE AND ONLY GOD.
It guides from birth till death and showing how to be also succesful in the life after the death.
This is not how we think just to suite the temporary needs.
Before accepting or rejecting any religion, he should have thorough idea of its teachings.
Unless it is known, believed in it and practiced, we can not call him the follower of Hinduism OR ISLAM, OR Christianity OR whatever.
Like changing for personal temporary gains, has no meaning and not required they can live like aninals which have no religions.
The animals follow and do whatever easy for them.
God give wisdom to all
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