Lockdown successfully blunted aggressive spread of Covid-19, saved 37-78k lives: MHA

India managed to prevent 14-29 lakh Covid-19 cases and 37-78,000 related deaths by imposing a nationwide lockdown and "successfully blunted" the "aggressive spread" of the coronavirus in the country, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Tuesday.

Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai also said in a written reply in Lok Sabha that the lockdown period helped the country create much required additional health infrastructure.

He was responding to questions raised by Congress' Manish Tewari and AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi among others.

During this period, he said dedicated isolation beds recorded an increase of 22 times and dedicated ICU beds above 14 times to what existed in March 2020. Similarly, laboratory capacity for testing Covid-19 was increased nearly 10 times during this time.

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While there was no indigenous manufacturing of Personal Protective Equipments (PPE) with the requisite standards, at that point in time, Rai pointed out that the country is now self-sufficient and in a position to export the same. Similarly, the limited indigenous manufacturing capacity available for masks, ventilators, etc, at the time of lockdown, was also enhanced to attain self-reliance in this regard.

"It has been estimated that the decision of Lockdown, by slowing down the spread of pandemic in India, has prevented 14-29 lakh cases and 37-78,000 deaths," he said.

Defending the decision to impose the lockdown, Rai said Covid-19 is a highly infectious disease any mass movement of people would have spread the disease very fast amongst people in all parts of the country.

Between 16-23 March, he said, most of the state governments resorted to partial or full lockdown upon their assessment of the situation. "...The global experience and the need for consistency in the approach and implementation of various containment measures across the country, a nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24 to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the country," he added.