New Delhi: The doubling time of coronavirus infection cases has slowed down to 13.9 days in the last three days. This was disclosed by Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan here Thursday. The Health Minister said 14 states and Union Territories (UTs) have not reported any case of COVID-19 in last 24 hours.
Vardhan however informed that the COVID-19 death toll has increased to 2,549 and the number of cases to 78,003.
The minister was visiting the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) here when he made the observations. During his visit Vardhan dedicated the COBAS 6800 testing machine to the nation.
Gujarat, Telangana, Jharkhand, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have not reported any new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. The same goes for Arunachal Pradesh, AP, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Goa, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Pondicherry. Also, Daman and Diu, Sikkim, Nagaland and Lakshadweep have not reported any case so far.
“It is heartening that the last three days’ (COVID-19) doubling time has slowed down to 13.9 days. Doubling time in the past 14 days was 11.1,” Vardhan was quoted as saying in a statement. Vardhan also said that till Thursday the country has carried out 20 lakh COVID-19 tests. Currently more than 500 laboratories – 359 government and 145 private – are operational.
The COBAS 6800 is the first fully automated, high-end machine for real-time COVID-19 PCR testing.
“The COBAS 6800 will provide quality, high-volume testing with a high throughput of test around 1200 samples in 24 hours. It will largely increase the testing capacity with reduction in pendency,” Vardhan informed.
As many as 134 COVID-19 deaths and 3,722 fresh instances the respiratory infection was reported in 24 hours till Thursday 8.00am.
With 26,235 people having cured of the disease so far, Vardhan said the recovery rate has further improved to 33.6 per cent. Earlier it was 32.83% on Wednesday on while the fatality rate was 3.2 per cent.
PTI