NEW DELHI: The government on Sunday directed all district heads to ensure seamless functioning of pharma units making devices and medicines.
The health ministry said the death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 83 and the cases climbed to 3,577 in the country on Sunday after 505 new infections were reported in the past 24 hours. The active COVID-19 cases stand at 3,219, while 274 people were either cured or discharged and one had migrated, the ministry stated.
However, a PTI tally based on figures reported by states directly showed at least 126 deaths across the country, while the confirmed cases reached 4,111. Of them, 315 have been cured and discharged.
Asserting that there was no evidence that coronavirus was an airborne infection, the health ministry also said the rate of doubling of COVID-19 cases in India is 4.1 days currently, but if the cases linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation would not have happened, it would have been 7.4 days.
“If it was an airborne infection then in a family — whoever has a contact — they all should come positive because they are living in same surrounding as the patient and the family is breathing the same air. When someone is admitted in hospital, other patient would have got exposure (if it was air borne) but that is not the case,” an official of the Indian Council of Medical Research said.
Unsure of what turn the COVID-19 pandemic will take in India, various key ministries and departments have cautiously started to chalk out re-emergence plans and strategies to come out of the 21-day nationwide coronavirus lockdown.
The focus of the Central and state governments currently appeared to be on two key aspects —-continuing with efforts on a war footing to contain the fast-spreading virus, and working on exit and “staggered re-emergence” from the lockdown.
In continued efforts to fight the virus, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba instructed district level officials to ensure that pharma units making devices and medicines run seamlessly. The direction came a day after India put curbs on exports of diagnostic kits with a view to discourage shipments and meet domestic requirement.
Gauba met Sunday with district magistrates, superintendents of police, chief medical officers, state and district surveillance officers, state health secretaries and district health secretaries and chief secretaries, Joint Secretary in the health ministry Lav Agarwal said. (PTI)
