COVID-19: India witnesses rise of 1035 cases in 24 hrs, Centre says 'Containment is focus'

Addressing the daily press briefing on the Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation in India, Union Health Ministry's Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal on Saturday, informed that India's tally has risen to 7447 cases of which 642 have recovered. Moreover, India has witnessed a rise of 1035 cases in the past 24 hours with a total death of 229 people. ICMR's Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar informed that India is still awaiting the arrival of the rapid anti-body tests in the next 1-2 days.

Coronavirus LIVE Updates: PM Modi interacts with all CMs on lockdown, total cases at 7447

Here are highlights of the briefing:

Health Ministry: 'Containment policy & action plan is the focus'

• 7447 cases, 642 recovered - 1035 cases in 24 hours, total deaths - 239
• A pandemic strategy without lockdown measures, implemented on March 25, would have led to 8.2 lakh cases by April 15 at a 41% growth rate.
• Due to lockdown, the rate is down to 29%, because of which India has 7447 cases today when it would have been around 45,000 without any measure.
• India’s response to COVID19 has been proactive. We have followed a graded approach. 
• There are 586 COVID19 dedicated hospitals and more than 1 lakh isolation beds in the country
• Centre assures that there is no shortage of HCQ today. We had a projection of 1 crore tablets and we have enough quantity.

Kejriwal confirms lockdown extension, says 'PM has taken correct decision to extend'

Home Ministry: 'Security for COVID-19 warriors'

MHA writes to Bengal Chief Secy, DGP on alleged lockdown violations; seeks action

ICMR: 'Awaiting anti-body test kits' 

• 171718 samples tested till date. 16564 tested yesterday in the 67 Pvt labs and the 146 Govt labs
• Till now we have not received any rapid test kits. We are expecting it in 2-3 days.

PM Modi interacts with all states' CMs to decide on extension of nationwide Covid lockdown

Coronavirus crisis in India

On Saturday, PM Modi has interacted with all state CMs to decide if the nationwide lockdown needs to be extended. While the Centre is yet to make a formal announcement, confirming the lockdown extension, sources state that several state Chief Ministers like Udhhav Thackeray (Maharashtra), Kejriwal (Delhi) and Punjab have backed extending the lockdown. The Prime Minister has issued a 21-day countrywide lockdown starting from 23 March to April 15 and the Finance Minister has announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore package under the 'PM Gareeb Kalyan Scheme'.