Govt says COVID-19 outbreak under control; situation bad in some hotspots

Ringing the alarm bells of a worsening situation in major or emerging hotspot areas including Ahmedabad, Surat, Hyderabad, and Chennai, the Centre on Friday (April 24) said the COVID-19 situation is especially serious there.

However, the government added that the nationwide lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a timely step, without which there would have been an estimated one lakh COVID-19 cases in India by now.

In a statement, the Home Ministry said that violations of lockdown measures reported in some parts of the country pose a serious health hazard to the public and may lead to the spread of COVID-19.

“The situation is especially serious in major hotspot districts or emerging hotspots like Ahmedabad and Surat (Gujarat), Thane (Maharashtra), Hyderabad (Telangana), and Chennai (Tamil Nadu),” the statement said.

The central government has already constituted 10 Interministerial Central Teams (IMCTs) for the spot assessment of the COVID-19 hotspot districts in the country.

Five of these teams are on inspection in Ahmedabad, Surat (both Gujarat), Thane (Maharashtra), Hyderabad (Telangana), and Chennai (Tamil Nadu).

The teams constituted earlier are in Mumbai, Pune (Maharashtra), Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Jaipur (Rajasthan) and West Bengal (one team for Kolkata and adjoining districts and the other for North Bengal).

The Home Ministry said that in some of the districts in the country, a number of violations of the lockdown measures have been reported, posing a serious health hazard and risk for the spread of COVID-19, which is against the general interest of the public.

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“These violations include incidents ranging from violence on frontline healthcare professionals, attacks on police personnel, violations of social distancing norms in market places and opposition to setting up of quarantine centres and so on,” it said.

The ministry said if such incidents are allowed to occur without any restraining measures in hotspot districts and emerging hotspots or even places where large outbreaks or clusters may be expected, it would pose a serious health hazard for the people of the country.

The IMCTs would use expertise of the central government and augment the state’s efforts to fight and contain the spread of COVID-19 effectively.

These teams would make an on-spot assessment of the situation and issue necessary directions to state authorities for its redressal and submit their report to the central government in the larger interest of the general public, the ministry said.

The IMCTs would be focusing on a range of issues including compliance and implementation of lockdown measures as per guidelines issued under the Disaster Management Act 2005, the supply of essential commodities, social distancing in the movement of people outside their homes, the preparedness of health infrastructure, hospital facilities and sample statistics in the district.

Safety of health professionals, availability of test kits, PPEs, masks and other safety equipment; and conditions of the relief camps for labour and poor people will also be looked after by the IMCTs, the statement said.

On a positive note, the officials said the virus outbreak is under control in the country and credited a robust surveillance network along with the implementation of the lockdown and other containment measures for it.

Of the 11 empowered groups formed to suggest measures to ramp up healthcare, put the economy back on track and reduce the misery of people once the lockdown is lifted, chairman of Empowered Group One and Niti Ayog member V.K. Paul said.

According to their analysis, the lockdown has been effective in slowing the rate at which COVID-19 cases are doubling in India, and it now stands at 10 days.

“If we go back to March 21, the cases were doubling in around three days. An important turn came on March 23 after the Janata Curfew had happened. The direction changed and the doubling rate increased to five. By then, we had already put in place travel restrictions and had created an environment of social distancing.

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“There were some disturbances in between and we went back a little. But from April 6, the doubling time started improving,” he said.

Paul also said the big decision of imposing the nationwide lockdown taken by the prime minister has “proved to be very timely and beneficial”, as shown by the change in the growth trajectory of India’s COVID-19 cases.

“The curve has begun to flatten. Had we not taken the decision of clamping the nationwide lockdown, we would have had around 1 lakh COVID-19 cases by now, as per a reasonable estimate.

Now, the outbreak is under control,” the Empowered Group One chairman said.

Officials, however, said these projections are based on the growth pattern at a particular time. Director of National Centre for Disease Control S K Singh that surveillance has been the countrys primary weapon in the fight against novel coronavirus.

“We started our surveillance mechanism even before the first case was reported in India. This played an important role in helping us contain the spread of the infection,” Singh said.

He informed reporters that around 9.45 lakh suspected coronavirus cases are under the surveillance network at present and upon detection of symptoms of the infection, samples are taken from these people for testing.

Singh said the surveillance network has been set up at the district level as well, so that household survey, quarantine, and isolation are done as part of the cluster containment plan.

Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said in the last 28 days, as many as 15 districts have had no new case, while there are 80 districts in the country that have not reported any new coronavirus case in the last 14 day.

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He also said in the 24-hour period since Thursday morning, 1,684 COVID 19 positive cases have been reported taking the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 23,077.

“A total of 4,748 people, which is 20.57 per cent of the total number of cases, have been cured so far,” Agarwal said.