NEW DELHI: The decision to impose a national lockdown prevented between 14 and 29 lakh of covid-19 cases and between 37,000 and 78,000 deaths in India, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan told Parliament on Monday.
“India has been able to limit its cases and deaths per million to 3,328 cases per million and 55 deaths per million inhabitants respectively, which is one of the lowest in the world compared to similarly affected countries,” Harsh Vardhan said regarding the steps of the government. to cope with the covid-19 pandemic.
In India, about 92% of cases are reported to have mild illness, he said, adding that “only in about 5.8% of cases where oxygen therapy is required and the illness can be severe enough to to require intensive care in only 1.7% of cases “. . ”
The Health Minister said that as of September 11, a total of 45,62,414 confirmed cases and 76,271 deaths had been reported in India with a fatality rate of 1.67%.
Up to 35,42,663 (77.65%) cases have been recovered. The peak of cases and deaths have been reported in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, West Bengal, Bihar, Telangana, Odisha, Assam, Kerala, and Gujarat. All of these states have reported more than a lakh of cases, he said.
The government has continued with community surveillance that was initiated initially for travel-related cases and subsequently for cases reported from the community by the Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP).
“As with 9/11, a total of around 40 lakh people have been kept under surveillance and the contacts of all positive cases are being closely monitored through the disease surveillance network to break the chain of transmission, “said Harsh Vardhan, adding that the total of 12,826 quarantine centers with 5,98,811 beds have been created.
“We have now gone from ‘managing travel-related cases’ to containing clusters and large outbreaks due to local transmission to a wide spread of the infection to urban, peri-urban and rural areas. This would require a concerted effort on the part of the Government with the participation of the people to prevent morbidity and mortality on a large scale, “he said.
The health minister said that 13 clinical trials of repurposed drugs and harnessing traditional knowledge using the modern medicine approach are building a portfolio of therapeutic options for COVID-19 patients.
“The phase 2 clinical trial of the Sepsivac immunomodulator has been successfully completed. The phase 2 clinical trial of the first ACQH phytodrug is ongoing. One prophylactic trial of aswagandha and three trials of guduchi + pippali; yashtimadhu; and the polyherbal drug AYUSH are planned for moderately ill Covid19 patients, “he said.
The Health Minister also said that globally, there are around 145 candidate vaccines in preclinical evaluation and 35 vaccines currently in clinical trials. In India, special attention has been paid to facilitating the development of the covid-19 vaccine. More than 30 vaccine candidates at different stages of development have been supported. Three candidates are in an advanced stage of phase I / II / III trials and more than four are in an advanced stage of preclinical development, he told Parliament.
The minister said the government is proactively identifying the gaps and building an Atmanirbhar Bharat that will be able to meet the challenges of pandemics, epidemics and similar disasters in the future.
“An Expense Financing Memorandum of Rs. 65,560.98 crore under Prime Minister Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana for strengthening is under consideration. This includes investments in research infrastructure, medical care and public health, with special emphasis on managing the pandemic, “he said.
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