There are 292 government labs and 97 private laboratories for COVID-19 testing across the country, the Union Health Ministry said.
The Centre on Thursday said only RT-PCR test has to be used for the detection of coronavirus infections, capacity for which has been scaled up progressively in the country.
Speaking during the media briefing on Thursday, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, said, "As far as testing and treatment protocol is concerned we have to use RT-PCR test only."
“We now have 292 government labs and 97 private laboratories for COVID-19 testing across the country. As many as 58,686 tests were done yesterday. 49,800 tests per day have been done on an average during the last 5 days," he said.
"We have been continuously scaling up our testing capacity, it is being ensured that all people who need to be tested as per testing protocol are getting tested,” Agarwal added.
Regarding the effectiveness of remdesivir in treating COVID-19, the Joint Secretary said, “As of now, there is no confirmed treatment protocol for COVID-19. Remdesivir is one of the various protocols which are being examined. Even the study on remdesivir by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, USA has not conclusively proved the effectiveness of the drug in curing COVID-19. We are waiting for larger evidence to take meaningful action at the field level.”
On a question regarding vaccine development for COVID-19, Agarwal stated, “Multiple organizations in multiple Ministries of the government are engaged in multiple vaccine trials for COVID-19. We are also part of WHO’s Solidarity Trial. Some candidate vaccines have been identified. However, nothing conclusive has come up. Multiple stages have to be passed, to conclude safe and efficacious use of a vaccine by human beings. As far as India is concerned, we have identified Hydroxychloroquine to begin with as a prophylaxis treatment.”
The number of COVID-19 positive cases stands at 33,610 as on date, while 24,162 people are under active medical supervision as on today. 8,372 people have been cured till date, which takes up the recovery rate to 24.90%.
The Health Ministry official said that the recovery rate has improved from 13.06% 14 days back, to nearly 25% today, which is a very positive sign.
Agarwal further said that the analysis of deaths so far show that case fatality rate is 3.2%; 65% of deaths were of males and 35% of the deceased were females. A study of the age distribution of deaths shows that 14% deaths occurred in the age–group of below 45 years, 34.8% in the age group 45 to 60 years and 51.2% in those aged above 60 years. Further, 42% of deaths occurred in the age-group of 60-75 years, while 9.2% of the deaths have been recorded in above 75 years age group.
It is important to note that when it comes to COVID-19, both age and co-morbidities are risk factors, he stated.
The official informed that the national average of doubling time has gone up to 11 days now, while it was 3.4 days before lockdown. Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, J&K, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Punjab have recorded doubling time between 10-20 days; Karnataka, Ladakh, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Kerala have a doubling time between 20-40 days; and Assam, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh have a doubling time which is more than 40 days.
On a question regarding whether the lockdown will be extended, Aggarwal said, “Health Ministry is very clear that we have to make physical distancing a part of our life, as a behaviour change. Along with that, it is equally important to focus on containment measures, in order to break the chain of transmission.”
The ongoing nationwide lockdown will end on May 3. The Ministry of Home Affairs has, however, indicated that the lockdown will be extended with considerable relaxations to many districts.
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