Before and after lockdown India’s positive rate remains 4.5%

New Delhi, April 23 (IANS): Before the lockdown and 30 days into the lockdown, India’s positive rate has remained 4.5 per cent despite a 24-fold increase in testing, the Centre said on Thursday.

C.K. Mishra, the Chairman of the Empowered Group 2, said the percentage of positive cases as a ratio of testing is more or less the same as it was a month back.

He added that post the lockdown, testing increased 24 times while the number of new positive cases grew 16 times.

Mishra said India has done better than majority of the developing countries, except South Korea, with respect to the percentage of tested cases yielding positive results.

“During the 30 days of lockdown, we have been able to cut transmission, minimise spread and increase the doubling time of Covid-19, consistently ramp up our testing and utilise our time to prepare for the future,” added Mishra.

He said the number of dedicated hospitals increased 3.5 times since last month and the number of isolation beds increased 3.6 times since March.

Detailing the nature of growth rate of Covid-19 cases, Mishra said the growth has been more or less linear, not exponential, and this indicates that the strategies adopted so far have succeeded in containing the infection to a particular level.

Mishra insisted that the country’s testing strategy has been focused, targeted and continues to expand, and is an evolving strategy.

“The lockdown period has been used gainfully to review, assess and expand our hospital infrastructure and preparedness; our effort has been to use resources and be over-prepared,” said Mishra.

Mishra added that the country’s first goal with regard to hospitalisation has been to ensure that the minimum number of people needs to go to the hospital. The second goal is to ensure enough infrastructure, so that every person who needs to go to the hospital is treated well, cured and sent back. Every district in the country is now working towards that, he added.