NEW DELHI: The total number of COVID-19 cases in India reached 918 with 179 fresh cases being reported on Saturday, the highest single-day increase so far, while the death toll rose to 19, according to the Union Health Ministry data.
In its updated data at 5.45 PM, the ministry stated that the number of active COVID-19 cases in the country was 819, which is an increases of 179 since Friday when it was 640. The total number of 918 cases in the country included 47 foreigners, the data stated. As many as 79 people were either cured or discharged and one had migrated.
Health infra boost
Amid looming fears of coronavirus infection entering the community transmission stage, India is boosting its overall health infrastructure by initiating measures like designating dedicated hospitals for affected patients in states, ramping up procurement of ventilators and mobilising resources of Railways and armed forces to deal with tougher challenges ahead.
Even though the Health Ministry and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have been insisting that there is “no solid evidence” of community transmission so far, the government has started scaling up health infrastructure to deal with any situation.
In an urgent communication, the Centre has asked all states to earmark hospitals only for treating COVID-19 patients and ramp up their capacity to manage increasing number of cases. At least 17 states have started work on it. The armed forces are keeping ready 28 service hospitals to provide treatment to COVID-19 patients apart from five hospitals which are carrying laboratory tests for the infection.
Defence public sector undertaking Bharat Electronics Limited has been tasked with manufacture ventilators while premier defence research laboratory DRDO is producing protective gears for medical personnel and supplying hand sanitisers and face masks to various agencies involved in patient care.
On Friday, the government granted emergency financial powers to Army corps and divisional commanders to procure equipment to set up medical and quarantine facilities for affected people.
Doctors at leading hospitals expressed fear that India ran the risk of seeing the viral transmission in stage three of infection if the lockdown and quarantine norms were not diligently complied with.
As part of its preparation to deal with large volume of cases, the Centre has also directed the states to keep some beds reserved for creating isolation facilities in public and private hospitals and ensuring that stable patients are discharged as early as possible. The health ministry has already asked hospitals and medical education institutions to procure sufficient number of ventilators and high-flow oxygen masks to deal with rising number of patients. The Centre has also asked hospitals to postpone all non-essential surgeries. Private hospitals too have ramped up their facilities and creating focussed team to handle any surge of patients in future.
Health ministry officials said only five per cent of the total affected patients require critical care as they go on respiratory failure and need to be put on ventilators while rest recover with supportive treatment.
To address the shortage of ventilators in the country, the government has placed an order to procure 10,000 ventilators in addition to earlier order of 1,200 ventilators.
Dr Giridhar Gyani, convenor of a task force on COVID-19 hospitals , said, there are few cases which are not known to have link with foreign travel or direct contact of anybody who had travelled abroad. “If such cases come in large number then we take it as beginning of community spread. In that sense though we are not in stage 3 but it would be better that we do all our preparations,” he said. “Luckily till today the increase in number of cases is pure arithmetic and things are under control while in community spread it goes geometrically or exponentially,” the official said. He said effective implementation of lockdown will help India arrest the further spread of the infection and government is fully prepared to meet any level of crisis. (PTI)
