AMN / NEW DELHI
Government today said, 325 districts in the country have not reported any coronavirus case so far because of actions initiated at the field level. There are 27 other districts also where no positive case has been reported since last 14 days.
As per the Health Ministry data, 1320 fresh confirmed cases of COVID- 19 have been reported in the last 24 hours. As many as 1515 patients have recovered and discharged from the hospitals while 420 patients have died so far.
Briefing media here today, an official from Health Ministry said the implementation of containment strategies in some districts which had earlier reported COVID-19 cases, have yielded positive results. One of them is, Mahe district of Puducherry which has reported no case since last 28 days.
He also said the Union Health Minister held a video conference yesterday, with health functionaries and field officers of World Health Organisation, in which a micro-plan for clusters and outbreak containment of COVID-19 at district-level was discussed.
He said, an action plan has been prepared on strengthening the country’s ongoing surveillance by utilizing the services of WHO’s national polio surveillance network team. He also informed that the Health Minister has held an interaction with industry leaders and assured that their concerns will be addressed.
The Health official informed an advisory for safe drinking water practices during lockdown has been issued and the Public health department has been advised to augment water supplies with special focus on relief camps and for vulnerable sections of the society.
The Home Ministry Representative said, the states have strengthened their efforts in implementing lockdown measures and the situation regarding essential commodities is satisfactory. She said, air, rail, road travel as well as services by the cab aggregators will be suspended till the 3rd of next month.
A representative of Indian Council of Medical Research informed that over 2.9 lakh samples have been tested so far. He said, 176 labs under ICMR network and 78 private sector labs are conducting COVID-19 tests in the country. He also said. it is important for people to understand that the rapid antibody tests are not for early diagnosis, but for surveillance and to monitor whether coronavirus hotspots in the country are increasing or decreasing. The ICMR official said five lakh rapid test kits are available in the country.
On the occasion, a government official, while listing out several measures taken by the Central government ministries informed that over 16 lakh free meals have been distributed by the Indian Railways till yesterday.