New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry said Monday the rate at which the number of coronavirus cases in the country was becoming double in the last one week has improved to 7.5 days, as against 3.4 days before the nationwide lockdown was imposed.
As per data available April 19, a total of 18 states and Union Territories (UTs) have shown an improvement than the national average doubling rate, Ministry of Health and Family Affairs Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said at a briefing.
Rate of doubling
Agarwal said that the states and UTs where the doubling time is less than 20 days are Delhi where it is doubling in 8.5 days, Karnataka in 9.2 days, Telangana 9.4 days, Andhra Pradesh 10.6 days, Jammu and Kashmir 11.5 days, Punjab 13.1 days, Chattisgarh 13.3 days, Tamil Nadu 14 days and Bihar 16.4 days.
Places where the doubling time is between 20 days to 30 days include Andaman and Nicobar Island where it was 20.1 days. In Haryana, the cases are doubling in 21 days, in Himachal Pradesh 24.5 days, Chandigarh 25.4 days, Assam 25.8 days, Uttarakhand 26.6 days and Ladakh 26.6 days.
States having doubling time more than 30 days are Odisha and Kerala which reported doubling time as 39.8 days and 72.2 days respectively.
Agarwal also said that a total of 1,553 new cases and 36 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours. The new additions have taken the total number of positive cases in the country to 17,265 and the death toll to 543 so far. Also 2,546 people have been cured and overall around 14.75 per cent people have recovered.
However, a tally comprised by this agency showed that the number of deaths have increased to 584. The total number of positive coronavirus cases stood at 17,744.
There are 59 districts in 23 states and UTs where no case has been reported in the last 14 days, Agarwal informed. He also said that all patients in Goa have been discharged. No further active cases have been reported in the state yet, he said.
Agarwal also expressed concern over the news of some journalists in Mumbai testing positive for the virus. He said that when they attend their call of duty, they should take the required precautions. “Follow the norms of social distancing and wear face masks,” Agarwal said.
Tally compiled by PTI
State/UT Confirmed Discharged Deaths
Andaman & Nicobar 15 11 0
Andhra Pradesh 722 92 20
Arunachal Pradesh 1 0 1
Assam 34 17 1
Bihar 96 42 2
Chandigarh 26 13 0
Chhattisgarh 36 25 0
Delhi 2,003 290 45
Goa 7 7 0
Gujarat 1,851 106 67
Haryana 251 115 2
Himachal Pradesh 40 11 2
Jammu & Kashmir 368 56 5
Jharkhand 41 0 2
Karnataka 408 112 16
Kerala 408 291 2
Ladakh 16 12 0
Madhya Pradesh 1,414 131 74
Maharashtra 4,200 507 233
Manipur 2 2 0
Meghalaya 11 0 1
Mizoram 1 0 0
Nagaland 1 0 0
Odisha 74 24 1
Pondicherry 8 4 1
Punjab 245 38 16
Rajasthan 1,535 97 25
Tamil Nadu 1,520 457 17
Telangana 858 186 21
Tripura 2 0 1
Uttarakhand 44 11 0
Uttar Pradesh 1,176 129 17
West Bengal 330 73 12
Total 17,744 2,859 584
Agencies