Health Ministry asserts Doubling rate of cases reduces post lockdown in India with a decline of 40% in growth factor; Doubling rate of cases reduces to 6.2 days post lockdown compared to 3 days before lockdown; Says all efforts focussed on developing vaccine.

Briefing media in New Delhi on Friday, Health Ministry official said, India has been doing better than many other countries on outcome ratio- the ratio of number of COVID-19 recoveries Vs. number of deaths.

He said, Government is taking efforts to further improve this ratio. He said, India’s doubling rate was about 3 days, before the lockdown. For the past 7 days, the doubling rate is 6.2 Days.

He informed that 19 states have shown a higher doubling rate better than the national average. The official informed that five lakh rapid antibody testing kits are being distributed to states and districts where high case burden has been observed.

He said, Group of Ministers held a meeting on Friday to chalk out further direction on Lockdown. Efforts of Science and Technology institutes in the areas of diagnosis, vaccines, drugs, hospital equipment accessories and general wellness have been reviewed.

He said, CSIR, DBT, DST and DAE are working to increase testing capacity. He said, the focus is on developing new, rapid and accurate diagnostic testing kits which can give result in 30 minutes.

He said, Government is also working on viral sequencing and vaccine development. He informed that India is working with global partners so that effective vaccines can be developed. He said, Government is trying to speed up these processes.

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

He said, CSIR labs are developing indigenous designs for PPEs, oxygen concentrators, ventilators and other ancillary support devices. He said, 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 COVID-19 case load.

He added that 1,919 dedicated COVID Hospitals and COVID Health Centres have been set up in the country, with capacity of 1.73 lakh isolation beds and 21,800 ICU beds.

