More on Covid-19

NEW DELHI: India has witnessed a slower rate of progression in Covid-19 cases as compared to several other countries, even developed nations, indicating that the national lockdown and other measures are having a positive effect even though there is no scope for any laxity in enforcing social distancing, the government said on Monday.“Our analysis shows that it took 12 days for cases to rise from 100 to 1,000 in our country, whereas several developed nations, having lesser population than us, have seen a multiple times increase,” health ministry joint secretary Lav Agarwal said. He added that in some developed nations with far less population, cases surged to 3,500; 5,000; 6,000 and even as high as 8,000 in a comparable time frame.Agarwal, however, underlined that there was no room for complacency and the level of alertness had to be high with full compliance of government guidelines and protocols related to lockdown, social distancing and quarantine. “It is an everyday battle as we are dealing with management of an infectious disease. Globally, we have seen that even if one person fails to comply, we will be back to stage zero. One person not complying with norms will infect hundred others and, in turn, those hundred will infect thousand others. Therefore, 100% alertness is required, ” Agarwal said.The government's strategy in managing the Covid-19 situation with timely interventions such as restrictions on travel from affected countries and concerted efforts by the Centre and states as well as imposition of lockdown has found some support from think tanks like Brookings India.“The escalation of cases has been very rapid in various other parts of the world, especially in countries of European Union, UK and the US. In India, though the cases are rising, the rate of growth is declining. It seems initial proactive measures such as travel ban and closure of schools and colleges around March 12 have bought us some time,” said Shamika Ravi , research director, Brookings India. According to Ravi’s assessment, the growth rate of confirmed cases since March 23 had declined to a doubling of cases every five days, as compared to doubling in every three days earlier.The health ministry reported 1,251 confirmed cases of Covid-19 till Monday. Of this, 1117 were active cases, 101 were cured and one migrant case. Total deaths stood at 29. Agarwal attributed the slower pace of rise in cases in India to people's participation in strictly following social distancing guidelines and the collective preemptive actions taken by the Centre in tandem with state governments.Ravi said the impact of the lockdown would be evident in another week but highlighted that the issue of migrant workers will have to be handled very effectively and efficiently by both the Centre and state governments. “Even if a handful of these migrants are infected, they will have a massive impact and the cases can go up significantly,” she said.