The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday asserted that the government can confirm a break in the chain of transmission if no case is reported for 28 days from a specific area. Addressing a press brief, Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Aggarwal replied to a question regarding 40-day lockdown, "We have to break the chain. If no coronavirus 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."
A total of 602 hospitals have been earmarked as dedicated COVID-19 facilities in coordination with capacity of 1,06,719 isolation beds and 12,024 ICU beds reserved for such patients in the country, said Agarwal. He added that 1,211 fresh coronavirus cases and 31 new deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the number of cases to 10,363 and deaths to 339 in the country.
Aggarwal stated that the positive cases have infected the youths but the death cases are seen in older people. He asked people, residing in rural or urban areas, to inform frontline workers if they develop symptoms.
According to an ICMR official, 2, 31902 tests have been conducted so far for COVID-19. "We have tested 2, 31902 samples, so far, including 21,635 samples on April 13. Out of these 18,644 were done in ICMR labs and 2991 in private labs. ICMR ha 166 labs and 70 other labs are private. We have enough kits to cover for six weeks," a senior ICMR official said.
ICMR added, "We have received another installment 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. Additionally, we are ordering close to about 33 Lakh kits for RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction) & 37 Lakh rapid kits are expected to come at any point in time."
Ministry of Finance spokesperson Rajesh Malhotra said, "Swift implementation of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan package is being monitored at the highest level. As of April 13, more than 32 crore poor people have been given direct cash support of Rs 29,352 crore under the package. 5.29 crore beneficiaries have been given free ration of food grains under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana and 3,985 MT of pulses have been dispatched to various states/union territories for distribution."
