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47 districts in 23 states, UTs have zero Covid cases: Govt
These districts are spread across 23 states and union territories. Another 22 districts, across 12 states, have not reported new cases in the past 14 days, the ministry added.
As many as 47 of India’s 731 districts have not reported any Covid-19 cases in the past 28 days, the ministry of health said in its daily briefing on Saturday. These districts are spread across 23 states and union territories. Another 22 districts, across 12 states, have not reported new cases in the past 14 days, the ministry added. The numbers assume significant as India eases lockdown restrictions in some areas (those unaffected by the pandemic) starting Monday.
The ministry also gave out the fatality rate thus far (3.3%) and the recovery rate (13.82%). According to its data, 75% of the dead are over the age of 60 years (42% are over the age of 75), numbers that are in keeping with global trends where most of the fatalities are old. According to the health ministry, the total number of fatalities as on Saturday is 480. This number differs from that in HT’s dashboard which is updated on the basis of information from state health departments and the tracker at Covid19india.org.
The ministry also said that almost 30% of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in India are related to the Tablighi Jammat’s March meeting at its HQ in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area.
“Of the 14378 positive cases reported so far in the country, 4291, which is 29.8% of the cases, are linked to this single source -- the Nizamuddin Markaz cluster,” said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary, health ministry, in a briefing. Epidemiologists refer to events such as this as super-events -- because they cause a significant number of cases across a wide geography. Agarwal added that 23 states and union territories have reported cases caused directly or indirectly by the meeting.
“Some of the high disease burden states in India have a majority of cases linked to the congregation -- 84% cases in Tamil Nadu, 63% in Delhi, 79% in Telangana, 61% in Andhra Pradesh and 59% in Uttar Pradesh. Also, some of the low disease burden states have most of their cases linked with this cluster such as Arunchal Pradesh’s sole positive case, 32 of the 35 cases from Assam and 10 of the 12 cases reported from Andaman Islands,” he said, adding that at least 40,000 people in quarantine are directly and indirectly connected to this super event.
“That’s why following lockdown and social distancing measures by every single person is important in containing the spread of the disease,” said Agarwal.
The experts say lockdown has played its part in keeping the numbers low so far.
“Implementing lockdown has been crucial in delaying the infection rate; it obviously cannot be stopped completely. However, a stricter implementation would have resulted in even lower number of cases, which is why we have to be very careful how we lift lockdown,” said Dr Jugal Kishore, community medicine specialist, Safdarjung Hospital.
Of the 480 deaths reported so far, 83% involved patients with so-called co-morbid conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, kidney or heart ailments, the ministry said. Globally too, those with underlying medical conditions are at high risk of developing severe symptoms when infected by the SARS-Cov-2 virus that causes Covid-19 and need to be extra careful.
Close to 2000 people who were infected have recovered and have been discharged from hospitals, the ministry said.
