JOIN US'Prepared for worse', says Health Minister as coronavirus cases rise
While India’s COVID-19 count continued its upward march with 3,320 new infections reported on Saturday, Health Minister Harshvardhan said the country’s health infrastructure is ready for the worst scenario.
“We do not anticipate a very worst type of situation in our country like many other developed countries but still we have prepared the whole country for the worst situation,” Harshvardhan said during a review meeting with health ministers of north-eastern states.
According to the health ministry, as of 8:00 am on Saturday, India had 59,662 confirmed cases of COVID-19, after an increase in excess of 3,000 infections for the third consecutive day. As many as 95 patients succumbed to the disease in a single day, taking the death toll to 1,981. A DH COVID-19 Tracker put the total cases at 60,222 and the death toll at 1,997 as of 7:15 pm on Saturday.
“We have dedicated 843 hospitals exclusively for COVID-19 patients, with 1,65,991 beds. Across the country, there are 1,991 dedicated COVID-19 health centres which have 1,35,643 beds. This includes isolation as well as ICU beds,” Harshvardhan said.
He said India also has 7,645 quarantine centres across the country which would also house the Indian citizens coming from foreign countries by special evacuation flights operated by the government.
On the testing front, he said India, which began its fight against COVID-19 with one lab in Pune, now has a network of 453 laboratories across the country, including 121 private labs, with a cumulative capacity to test 95,000 samples every day.
“On Friday, we had tested more than 84,600 samples,” the minister said. For the northeastern states, Harshvardhan stressed on the need to take concrete action to check the use of non-smoking tobacco and prohibit spitting in public places which shall help in preventing the spread of the infection.
For the states that have international borders, the minister suggested adequate measures to prevent exposure by conducting screening of all individuals at entry points and following quarantine protocol as per the guidelines.