AIIMS Director Dr. Randeep Guleria says India has 'less number of deaths due to COVID-19'

All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Director Dr. Randeep Guleria has stated that India has a 'very low' number of cases per million in comparison to other countries. Dr. Guleria also stated that the country's huge population puts it on a backfoot in the efforts to contain the COVID-19 infection. 

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'Low cases per million'

Speaking to ANI, Dr. Guleria said, "Although India has gone up to the fourth rank as far as COVID-19 cases are concerned, we have to accept that because of the population we have. Our population is more than in many countries in Europe. Therefore, if we look at the number of cases per million population, we are still very low in terms of number of cases."

"We have less number of deaths due to COVID-19. We will have cases owning to a large number of population, but if we are able to save lives and the number of death is less, we will be more successful in this fight against COVID-19," he said.

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Currently, there are 2,97,535 confirmed novel coronavirus cases in India out of which 1,47,195 patients have recovered while 8,498 casualties have been reported. With 6,166 people recovering from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the country's recovery rate surged to 49.47%. 1,41,842 individuals are under active medical supervision.

The case doubling rate has improved from 3.4% at the beginning of the lockdown to 17.4 days at present. 1,50,305 out of the total 53,63,445 samples have been tested for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. The ICMR has ramped up the testing capacity and 877 labs- 637 government labs and 240 private labs are operational across India now. 

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Meanwhile, PM Modi is likely to hold a conference with all state Chief Ministers amid 'Unlock 1'. The meeting will be held in two parts on June 16 and 17.

PM Modi has held five conferences with all CMs amid the Coronavirus pandemic. Previous meetings had all been to discuss the nation's strategy to battle COVID-19 and had resulted in nation-wide lockdowns - the last one with considerable relaxations. While all CMs had attended the first one, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan has sent a representative for the past two meetings. Most CMs had aired their greivances and have supported the Centre's move to extend lockdown. 

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(Image credits: aiims.edu)