COVID-19 doubling rate at 4.1 after Tablighi Jamaat, otherwise would be 7.4: Health Min

The doubling rate of the novel coronavirus infection after the Tablighi Jamaat incident is 4.1, and had it not happened the rate would be 7.4, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday. In a press briefing, Joint Secretary for Health, Lav Aggarwal informed that 472 fresh cases of COVID-19 were reported since Saturday, taking the total number of infections in India to 3,374. The death toll also rose by 11 to 79 while 267 sick people have recovered so far.

The Ministry also informed that 274 districts across the country have been affected due to COVID-19 to date.

"Our doubling rate (in how many days the number of COVID-19 cases gets double) at present is 4.1 days. But if additional cases reported due to the Tablighi Jamaat event, had not taken place, then the doubling rate would have been 7.4 days," Lav Aggarwal said. 

Virtual meet with district officials

The official also said that Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba held a meeting with all state Chief Secretaries, Health Secretaries & all District Magistrates and SPs over video conference. The DMs were asked to ensure the smooth production of medical equipment and oriented them on the effective adoption of a containment strategy.

"Through this VC, the district authorities also shared their experience. Two things were drawn from this — proactive and ruthless containment implementation at field level and the other being preparedness to the extent of being overprepared to deal with any situation. Many other important inputs were shared by district officials," Lav Aggarwal said.

COVID-19 hostpot

Tablighi Jamaat had in mid-March organised the Markaz event in Delhi's Nizamuddin mosque and hosted over 2000 people, from India and abroad, amid Coronavirus outbreak. After attending the meeting, which took place prior to the nationwide lockdown, many of the attendees returned to other parts of the country. The Nizamuddin West area has emerged as a hotspot of COVID 19 spread.