78 districts in 23 states and union territories have not reported a fresh case in last 14 days, said Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry while addressing the media today on Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
As on today, we have 12 districts that did not have a fresh case in the last 28 days or more. There are now 78 districts (23 States/UT) that has not reported any fresh cases during the last 14 Days: Health Ministry
— ANI (@ANI) April 23, 2020
He also added that 12 districts across India have not registered a single new case in 28 days. CK Mishra, Environment Secretary and Chairman, Empowered Group-2 said that we in India have been able to cut down transmission, minimise the spread and increase the doubling rate. Doubling rate is the number of days it takes for total positive case double. “Growth as been more or less linear, not exponential,” he said.
A month back, on 23rd March, India had carried out 14,915 tests for coronavirus. Today, as of 22nd April, a month since lockdown was announced, India has conducted over 5 lakh tests.
India has done better than majority of developed countries, with respect to the % of test cases yielding positive results
— PIB India #StayHome #StaySafe (@PIB_India) April 23, 2020
We need to evolve our strategy based on the current position as seen here
– Chairman, Empowered Group 2 ➡️https://t.co/pARhE6CeS9 #IndiaFightsCorona pic.twitter.com/LaQYj15Sbd
During the lockdown, despite a 24 times increase in testing of cases, the number of positive cases has not increased exponentially. “The facts show that our testing strategy has been focused, targeted and continues to expand, this is an evolving strategy based on our learnings as we go along. As the challenge kept expanding, strategy too kept expanding,” Mishra added.
India goes coronavirus-free
As of now, Sikkim and Nagaland have not registered a single coronavirus case yet. Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, which had 7, 1 and 2 patients each are also coronavirus-free after all the patients in those states recovered. Among other states and union territories, Mizoram and Tripura have one active positive case each while Ladakh and Puducherry have 2 and 3 active cases respectively.