Increase in coronavirus cases linear, not exponential: Centre

As the anti-Covid-19 lockdown completed a month, the Centre on Thursday said the spread of the outbreak in the country has been more or less linear and not exponential, giving adequate time to beef up the health infrastructure.

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India had also ramped up testing 33 times between March 23 and April 23 crossing the five lakh samples mark on Wednesday with the number of confirmed cases remaining stable at 4.5% of the samples tested.

As on Thursday, India had 21,700 confirmed cases of Covid-19 of which 4,325 had recovered from the illness and 686 succumbing to the infection.

“It is very difficult to tell that peak will arrive till 3rd May or when it will come. But it is very stable. Positivity rate has been 4.5% throughout, one can say we have been able to flatten the curve. However, it is difficult to predict it (peak),” Indian Council of Medical Research Director General Balram Bhargava told reporters here.

Also Read: Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths

Environment Secretary C K Mishra, who chairs the Empowered Group-II on Covid-19 Response, said during the 30-day lockdown period the government has been able to cut transmission, minimise the spread of the infection, and consistently ramp up the testing capacity to prepare for the future.

However, according to Randeep Guleria, Director AIIMS, a key challenge faced by healthcare professionals was the stigma attached to the Covid-19 infection that was deterring people from reporting influenza-like illnesses.

“Because of the stigma attached to Covid-19, many patients with flu-like symptoms are not coming to health care facilities. They are coming out when they are breathless, and this is leading to higher mortality,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the nation-wide lockdown on March 24, initially for 21 days and later extended it to May 3 as the country confirmed cases continued to rise.

Giving a snapshot of the achievements on beefing up health infrastructure, Mishra said the number of dedicated Covid-19 hospitals have increased 3.5 times during the month-long lockdown to 736, while the hospital beds have risen 3.6 times to nearly two lakh beds.

“Our first goal is to ensure that people don't have to come to the hospital. The second goal is that for every person who needs to come to the hospital, we put enough infrastructure so that the person is treated and cured so that the mortality rate is low,” Mishra said.

A senior official said that the number of districts not to have reported Covid-19 cases for 28 days has risen to 12, while 78 districts across the country have not reported fresh infections for the last 14 days.