India’s tally of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) stood at 332,424 after 11,502 new cases were recorded between Sunday and Monday, the Union health ministry data showed.
This is the third consecutive day that there have been more than 11,000 Covid-19 cases in the country. There were 325 fatalities in the last 24 hours which takes the country’s death toll to 9,520, according to the health ministry.
India’s recovery rate continued to rise as 169,797 patients were cured of the deadly infection taking it to a little over 51% from Sunday’s 50.59%.
The number of recovered Covid-19 patients in the worst-hit state of Maharashtra also went up with 50,978 people discharged from hospitals. Maharashtra’s case tally stood at 107,958 and the state reported 3,950 deaths so far.
In Delhi, Union home minister Amit Shah has called another round of meeting. Shah will meet members of all political parties on Monday for further assessment of the pandemic situation in the Capital.
Amit Shah had announced a comprehensive door-to-door survey in containment zones for contact tracing and promised the city 500 railway coaches having a capacity of 8,000 beds to treat Covid-19 patients to mitigate any possible shortage of beds.
Delhi has recorded 41,182 infections, with 24,032 active cases, and 1,327 deaths. From Monday, June 8, to Sunday, the city has registered 12,246 cases. In the previous week—June 1-7— it had recorded 9,092 cases.
In Tamil Nadu, the number of those affected by the respiratory disease stood at 44,661 and the state’s death toll is 435, according to the Union health ministry.
Gujarat, another state which has contributed to the rising Covid-19 cases in India, has recorded 23,544 infections and 1,477 deaths till date.
A new pre-print study has said the eight-week lockdown in India shifts the peak of the epidemic by 34-76 days and reduces the number of cases at the end of the lockdown by 69-97%
The study was done by academics at the department of community medicine and School of Public health at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Research and Education and Research, Chandigarh, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, ICMR. It was funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
India imposed a lockdown that was nearly 10 weeks long and some of the restrictions are still in place although many have been eased.
The study, which is yet to be peer reviewed, also claimed that “intensification of public health surveillance measures with 60% effectiveness” would reduce the number of cases at the peak by 70% and cumulatively by 26.6%. Such measures would also reduce the requirement for ICU beds and ventilators by 83%, the study added.
It puts the cost of managing Covid-19 in India at 4.5% of GDP in the absence of any “intervention” and 6.2% with “intensified public health measures.”
It said that India’s health care infrastructure may prove inadequate later this year with the demand for isolation and ICU beds and ventilators exceeding supply in November even with “intensified public health measures with 60% effectiveness.”
