The health ministry on Thursday defended the government's decision for the next phase of ‘unlocking’ even as the country registered a record number of coronavirus (Covid-19) cases in a single day, on grounds that “lives are important, but so is livelihood.”
Health secretary, Rajesh Bhushan, while addressing the press briefing on Covid-19, said that the government had adopted a graded approach to unlocking and opening up economic activity. “Prior to such opening, the government has ensured that prerequisites are in place - adequate testing, hospital infrastructure such as oxygen and ICU beds and protocols for clinical treatment.”
As part of Unlock-4, state governments cannot impose any lockdowns outside containment zones without prior consultation with the central government.
In the first few months of the Covid-19 pandemic when various government departments were batting for opening up and allowing movement of people citing economic concerns, the health ministry had backed extension of the lockdown to curb the growth in Covid-19 cases.
As on Thursday morning, India registered the highest ever single day increase 0f almost 84,000 in Covid-19 cases inching close to the 4 million mark. By the end of April, India had less than 40,000 coronavirus infections. Cases have grown almost 100 times since then.
According to health ministry data, five states accounted for more than half of total active Covid-19 cases in the country and one-fourth were from Maharashtra alone. Over 70 per cent of total fatalities were also from five states alone including .
In the last two weeks, Delhi, after a decline in total cases, is witnessing another surge. The national capital has seen a 50 per cent increase in daily Covid-19 deaths on a week-on-week basis from August 13 to September 2, health ministry data showed. Karnataka has seen a 9.6 per cent increase for the same period in daily average deaths.
Health ministry is drawing solace in the fact that deaths per million population in India are 49 against a global average of 111. While the number of total tests has also increased to 1.1 million in a single day with 45 million total tests done so far, a large number of these are rapid antigen tests which are not considered the most accurate.
Health ministry said that testing did not present a uniform picture across the country. For instance, while in Tamil Nadu over 90 per cent tests are RT-PCR, some states have limited capacity for such tests.
The health secretary said that rapid antigen tests were ideal screening tests for densely populated and containment areas, and buffer zones. He, however, added, “There are states where the optimal capacity of RT-PCR is not being utilised off late. We have drawn the attention of the states that they are needed to scale up their tests,” Bhushan added.