New Delhi: Twenty-five districts across 15 states which had detected coronavirus infections earlier have contained the spread and reported no new cases in 14 days, the Union Health Ministry said Monday. The Health Ministry also asserted that the government has enough stocks to conduct tests for up to six weeks and over two lakh samples have been tested so far.
Addressing a press briefing here, Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said 796 new COVID-19 cases and 35 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 9,152 and deaths 308. However, unofficial sources quoted the death toll in the last 24 hours as 50, the most registered in the timeframe since coronavirus outbreak started in India.
“Twenty-five districts across 15 states which had reported cases earlier have contained the virus and have not detected new ones in 14 days. This is a positive development,” said Agarwal.
The districts are Gondia (Maharashtra), Raj Nand Gaon (Chhattisgarh), Davangiri (Karnataka), South Goa, Wayanad and Kottayam (Kerala), West Imphal (Manipur), Rajouri (J&K), Aizwal West (Mizoram), Mahe in Pondicherry, SBS Nagar in Punjab, Patna, Nalanda and Munger in Bihar, Pratapgarh in Rajasthan, Panipat, Rohtak and Sirsa in Haryana, Pauri Garhwal in Uttrakhand and Bhadradari Kothagudem in Telangana.
Agarwal also said that the Core Strategy Group on COVID-19 was working on rapid and economical diagnostics as well as new drugs.
“The group has been formed, based on a detailed review of COVID-19 research, undertaken by Union Health Minister Harshvardhan along with CSIR and its 38 labs. The group is working on digital and molecular surveillance, rapid and economical diagnostics, new drugs, repurposing of drugs and associated production processes,” Agarwal informed.
According to ICMR officials, 2,06,212 tests for COVID-19 have been conducted so far. “Of these 14,855 tests took place at 156 government labs and 1,913 tests happened at 69 private labs Sunday. There is no need to worry. We have enough stocks to conduct tests for six weeks,” an ICMR official said at the briefing.
The Union Health Ministry also said that 78,000 self-help group members of 27 states have produced 1.96 crore masks under the State Rural Livelihood Missions.
“Under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojna package, over 30,000 poor people have been provided financial support of Rs 28,256 crore during the lockdown up to April 10. This includes support of Rs 19.86 crore to Jan Dhan Yojna women account holders who were transferred Rs 9,930 crores,” Agarwal said.
PTI