Rate of cases doubling slows to 7.5 days against 3.4 before lockdown: Govt

As per data on April 19, 18 states and UTs have shown an improvement than the national average doubling rate, Ministry of Health and Family Affairs Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said at a briefing.

The Union Health Ministry said on Monday the rate at which the number of coronavirus cases in the country was becoming double in the last one week has improved to 7.5 days, as against 3.4 days before the nationwide lockdown was imposed.

As per data on April 19, 18 states and UTs have shown an improvement than the national average doubling rate, Ministry of Health and Family Affairs Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said at a briefing.

He said that the states and UTs where the doubling time is less than 20 days are Delhi where it is doubling in 8.5 days, Karnataka in 9.2 days, Telangana 9.4 days, Andhra Pradesh 10.6 days, Jammu and Kashmir 11.5 days, Punjab 13.1 days, Chhattisgarh 13.3 days, Tamil Nadu 14 days and Bihar 16.4 days.

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Places where the doubling time is between 20 days to 30 days include Andaman and Nicobar Island where it was 20.1 days. In Haryana, the cases are doubling in 21 days, in Himachal Pradesh 24.5 days, Chandigarh 25.4 days, Assam 25.8 days, Uttarakhand 26.6 days and Ladakh 26.6 days. States having doubling time more than 30 days are Odisha and Kerala which reported doubling time as 39.8 days and 72.2 days respectively, Agarwal said.

There are 59 districts in 23 states and UTs where no case has been reported in the last 14 days, he said. Agarwal also said that in some good news, all the patients in Goa have been discharged. No further active cases have been reported in the state yet, he said.

He also expressed concern over the news of some journalists in Mumbai testing positive for the virus and said that when they attend their call of duty, they should take the required precautions.

“Follow the norms of social distancing and wear face masks,” Agarwal said.

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