30 municipal areas account for India's 79 pc of coronavirus cases

New Delhi [India], May 15 : The Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 was on Friday informed that there are 30 municipal areas, which account for 79 per cent of India's coronavirus caseload.
"The GoM had in-depth deliberation on containment strategy and management aspects of COVID-19 as well as the measures being taken by the Centre and various States. The GoM was informed that there are 30 municipal areas which are constituting 79 per cent of India's caseload," an official release said.
The 15th meeting of the high-level GoM was held at Nirman Bhawan here today, under the chairmanship of Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, and Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityananda Rai also attended the meeting.
Among others who were also present in the meeting were Minister of State for Shipping Mansukh Lal Mandaviya, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat.
A detailed presentation on the present status of COVID-19 cases globally and within the country was made.
"Worldwide the total number of COVID-19 positive cases stand at 42,48,389 with 2,94,046 deaths and the fatality rate pegged at 6.92 per cent, whereas in India, the total number of COVID-19 positive cases stand at 81,970 with 2,649 deaths and the fatality rate pegged at 3.23 per cent. So far, a total of 27,920 people have been cured. And if seen in the last 24 hours, 1,685 patients were found cured. This takes the total recovery rate to 34.06 per cent," adds the release.
The presentation also highlighted that the impact of lockdown was seen on the doubling rate, which improved from 3.4 days in the pre-lockdown week to 12.9 days in the last week.
The GoM had in-depth deliberation on containment strategy and management aspects of COVID-19, as well as the measures being taken by the Centre and various States.
"GoM discussed that focus of COVID-19 management strategy needs to be on the States with the highest number of confirmed cases and highest number of fatalities, and on treatment and case fatality management, for which timely detection of infection and contact tracing were the best way forward," says the release further.
The ministers also discussed the challenges before various States/UTs arising from the returning migrant labourers and the returnees from abroad.
The GoM was also apprised that various recommendations of the Government of India for the containment zone management pertaining to indicators, root causes and action required are already shared with the States/UTs for better and effective management of COVID-19 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The GoM was also apprised about the growing medical infrastructure in the country and was informed that as on today, a total of 8,694 facilities comprising of 919 dedicated COVID hospitals, 2,036 COVID Health Centres and 5,739 COVID Care Centres with a total of 2,77,429 beds for severe and critical cases, 29,701 ICU beds and 5,15,250 isolation beds in care centres, are available.
Also, as on date, 18,855 ventilators are available to combat COVID-19 in the country. The Centre has also provided 84.22 lakh N95 masks and 47.98 lakh Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits to States/UTs/ Central institutions.
The GoM was also informed that domestic manufacturers have reached the production capacity of nearly 3 lakh PPEs per day and about 3 lakh N-95 masks per day which is sufficient to meet the requirement of the country in the near future.
In addition, manufacturing of ventilators by domestic manufacturers has also started and orders have been placed.
Dr Balram Bhargava, DG, ICMR, informed the GoM that the testing capacity has increased in the country to 1,00,000 tests per day through 509 government and private laboratories.
"Nearly 20 lakh cumulative tests have been conducted in the country, as on date. Advance machines for ramping up the testing facility has also been procured and ordered," the release said.
Also, the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had been equipped with the COBAS 6800, a fully automated, high-end machine for performing real-time PCR testing COVID-19 in the service of the nation.
COBAS 6800 will provide quality, high-volume testing with a high throughput of test around 1200 samples in 24 hours. The current availability of testing kits is sufficient enough and is being distributed through 15 depots of ICMR to the States/UTs.
The GoM was also informed about the efforts taken by the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Civil Aviation in cooperation with the State Governments to prepare a staggered timeline of flights to bring back Indian citizens from various countries under the Vande Bharat Mission.
In Phase-1 of the exercise, around 12,000 Indians have already been brought back and quarantined in the respective States. All due procedures like screening at the point of embarkation, and paid institutional quarantine facilities in the States have been undertaken as per the laid down guidelines.