The number of people testing positive for coronavirus in India climbed to 10,363 with 1,211 fresh cases in the last 24 hours, the government said on Tuesday.
About one-tenth of those who had tested positive have been cured.
“Till now 1036 people have been cured. Yesterday 179 people were diagnosed and found cured. In the last 24 hours, 1,211 fresh cases and 31 deaths were reported. A total of 339 people have died so far,” Lav Agarwal, joint secretary, Union Health Ministry said.
Follow coronavirus latest updates here.
Asked if the extension of the lockdown could help break the chain of Covid-19 transmission, Agarwal said, “If no Covid-19 case is reported for 28 days from a specific area, we can say we have been able to break the chain of transmission.”
He said that India had been ahead of the curve in facing the threat of coronavirus and had started screenings at airports in January. Agarwal said that when it came to testing protocol to gauge the scale of coronavirus, it is important to test those who need to be tested.
Raman R Gangakhedkar of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) who also spoke at the briefing, brushed aside concerns about the number of testing kits required to check the spread of coronavirus.
{{/usCountry}}Raman R Gangakhedkar of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) who also spoke at the briefing, brushed aside concerns about the number of testing kits required to check the spread of coronavirus.
{{/usCountry}}“Yesterday we said that we have kits that could last for 6 weeks. We have received another instalment for RT-PCR kits which are far more sufficient in numbers, which would essentially mean that we would be able to cover ourselves for a long period of time.”
He said 37 lakh rapid test kits are expected to reach any time.
“Additionally, we are ordering close to about 33 lakh kits for RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction) and 37 lakh rapid kits are expected to come at any point in time,” Gangakhedkar said.