As COVID-19 cases cross 2.5 lakh, govt defends lockdown, says fine-tuning strategy

With the COVID-19 cases crossing crossed 2.5 lakh, the government on Sunday (June 7) asserted that coronavirus is a “new agent” about which not everything is known and defended the timing of imposition of the lockdown. It also rejected media reports as “baseless” and expressed concerns that the media did not take inputs from technical experts while drawing up its COVID-19 strategy.

The government also said it is “fine-tuning” its strategy based on emerging knowledge and experience on the ground.

India registered its highest single-day spike of COVID-19 cases for the fifth consecutive day on Sunday, with 9,971 new infections taking the country’s tally to around 2.5 lakh while the death toll rose to 6,929, according to the Union Health Ministry.

In a statement, the Health Ministry said a section of the media is reporting on the decisions regarding India’s approach to the pandemic and asserted that the decision on the lockdown was taken in the background of rapid escalation of COVID-19 cases.

“The doubling rate of cases had dropped to a low level, pointing toward a dangerous trajectory of high caseload and high mortality, as experienced by many western countries. The possibility that our health systems could soon be overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients seemed to be real,” the ministry said.

There was an all-round consensus on the lockdown among all state governments, it said.

“The government has already shared information on the impact of the lockdown and other restrictions to avert lakhs of infections and thousands of deaths, as also enormous gains in the health system and peoples preparedness,” the ministry said.

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It said policies and strategies need to be calibrated to keep pace with the rapidly evolving situation the nation is faced with.

“This virus is a new agent, not everything is known about it as yet. Government is fine-tuning the strategy based on emerging knowledge and experience on the ground,” the statement said.

“As is well known in public health, different stages of epidemic demand different responses, and the nuanced, step-wise response is known to be a positive characteristic of a resilient health system,” it said.

The ministry also said there are some reports in a section of the media expressing concern about the government’s efforts towards containment and management of COVID-19 to have excluded the larger wisdom of technical experts.

“These apprehensions and allegations are unfounded and baseless. The government is constantly in consultation with experts for technical and strategic inputs, scientific ideas and domain-specific guidance to address the COVID-19 pandemic,” the statement said.

A National Task Force (NTF) for COVID-19 is constituted by Secretary DHR-cum-DG- ICMR with Member (Health) NITI Aayog as Chairperson and Secretary (DoHFW) and Secretary (DHR) as co-chairs, it said

The NTF comprises 21 members including technical or domain experts from the government and outside the government, the ministry said.

Predominant expertise in the Task Force is from public health and/or epidemiology, it noted.
Given the complexity and implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, the group has experts from medicine, virology, pharmacology and programme implementation domains as well, it highlighted.

The task force has constituted four expert groups and the groups on Epidemiology and Surveillance (13 members) and on Operations Research (15 members) almost entirely comprise of public health and epidemiology experts from the government and non-government arena.

The task force has held over 20 meetings and has systematically contributed towards the scientific and technical response to the pandemic, it said.

Among other contributions, the Task Force has issued guidelines on testing, prevention, treatment and surveillance.

In addition to the NTF, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has also constituted a group of experts with public health experts as members, the statement said.

“The people, the WHO and the global health community have appreciated India’s proactive and pre-emptive approach to COVID-19,” it stated.

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Compared to countries that have eased lockdowns such as UK, Italy, Spain and Germany, India has reported the lowest number of cases per lakh population, at 17.23 cases per lakh population and 0.49 deaths per lakh population, it said, citing a WHO Situation Report.

The various policy decisions, interventions and strategies for containment and management of COVID-19 have been placed in the public domain and its impact has been shared with people through various media platforms, regular media briefings, daily press releases from various ministries and departments, panel discussions on electronic and social media, the statement said.

The nationwide curbs were first announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 for 21 days in a bid to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The lockdown was first extended till May 3 and then again till May 17. It was further extended till May 31 and now has been extended in containment zones till June 30.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stands at 1,20,406, according to the Health Ministry.

A total of 1,19,292 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the Ministry said.

During the last 24 hours, a total of 5,220 COVID-19 patients have been cured, the ministry said.

Cases in India per lakh population (17.32) are much lower than the world average of 87.74 and are the lowest among countries that have eased lockdown such as Germany (219.93), Italy (387.33), the UK (419.54) and Spain (515.61).

Of the 287 deaths reported since Saturday morning, 120 were from Maharashtra, 53 from Delhi, 29 from Gujarat, 19 from Tamil Nadu, 17 from West Bengal, 15 from Madhya Pradesh, 13 from Rajasthan, 10 from Telangana, three from Jammu and Kashmir, two each from Karnataka, Punjab and Chhattisgarh and one each from Kerala and Bihar.

Of the total 6,929 fatalities, Maharashtra tops the tally with 2,969 deaths, followed by Gujarat with 1,219 deaths, Delhi with 761, Madhya Pradesh with 399, West Bengal with 383, Uttar Pradesh with 257, Tamil Nadu with 251, Rajasthan with 231, Telangana with 123 and Andhra Pradesh with 73 deaths.

The death toll reached 59 in Karnataka and 50 in Punjab.

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Jammu and Kashmir has reported 39 fatalities due to the disease, Bihar has 30, Haryana has 24 deaths, Kerala has 15, Uttarakhand has 11, Odisha has eight and Jharkhand has reported seven deaths so far.

Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh have registered five COVID-19 fatalities each. Assam and Chhattisgarh have recorded four deaths each.

Meghalaya and Ladakh have reported one COVID-19 fatality each, according to the Health Ministry data.

According to the Ministry’s website, more than 70 per cent of the deaths are due to comorbidities.

The highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 82,968, followed by Tamil Nadu at 30,152, Delhi at 27,654, Gujarat at 19,592, Rajasthan at 10,331, Uttar Pradesh at 9,733 and Madhya Pradesh at 9,228, according to the Health Ministry data updated in the morning.

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 7,738 in West Bengal, 5,213 in Karnataka, 4,915 in Bihar and 4,510 in Andhra Pradesh.

It has risen to 3,952 in Haryana, 3,496 in Telangana, 3,467 in Jammu and Kashmir, and 2,781 in Odisha.

Punjab has reported 2,515 coronavirus infections so far, while Assam has 2,397 cases. A total of 1,807 people have been infected with the virus in Kerala and 1,303 in Uttarakhand.
Jharkhand has registered 1,000 cases, Chhattisgarh has 923, Tripura has 747, Himachal Pradesh has 400, Chandigarh has 309 cases, Goa has 267, Manipur has 157, Nagaland has 107, and Puducherry and Ladakh have 99 cases.

Arunachal Pradesh has 47 COVID-19 cases, while Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Meghalaya have registered 33 infections each.

Mizoram has reported 24 cases and Dadar and Nagar Haveli has 19 cases, while Sikkim has reported seven cases till now.

“8,605 cases are being reassigned to states,” the Ministry said on its website adding, “our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR.”

State-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it added.