COVID-19: India's doubling rate improves to 7.5 post lockdown; recovery rate at 14.75%

India's doubling rate of COVID-19 — the number of days in which cases double — has improved to 7.5 due to lockdown, as against 3.4 before the nationwide lockdown, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday. The rate of recovery of COVID-19 patients in the country has also improved to 14.75%, even as the rate of increase in fresh positive cases has jumped.

"We calculate the doubling rate of cases at regular intervals. When we calculated it based on the data of the last seven days, we found that India's doubling rate which was 3.4 before lockdown has now improved to 7.5. Another good news is that 18 States have a better rate than the national average," joint secretary for Health, Lav Aggarwal, told reporters in a press briefing.

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States with doubling rate above India average

The Ministry informed that the doubling rate in Delhi is 8.5 days, while it is 9.2 days in Karnataka, 9.4 days in Telangana, 10.6 days in Andhra Pradesh, 11.5 days in Jammu and Kashmir, 13.1 days in Punjab, 13.3 days in Chhattisgarh, 14 days in Tamil Nadu and 16.4 days in Bihar. He further said that the doubling rate is much lower in other States and UTs like Andaman and Nicobar (20.1), Haryana (21 days), Himachal Pradesh (24.5 days), Chandigarh (25.4 days), Assam (25.8 days), Uttarakhand and Ladakh (26.6 days each).

"The doubling rate of Odisha and Kerala is over 30 days. I would congratulate and thank the COVID warriors on the ground in these States," Aggarwal said.

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List of districts with no fresh cases

The Health Ministry further informed that other than Puducherry's Mahe and Karnataka's Kodagu districts, Uttarakhand's Pauri Garhwal too has not reported any fresh novel Coronavirus case during the last 28 days. The number of districts where no case has been reported in the last 14 days has increased to 59. The six latest additions include — Dungarpur and Pali in Rajasthan, Jamnagar and Morbi in Gujarat, North Goa in Goa and Gomati in Tripura. 

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Journalists testing COVID positive 'unfortunate'

When asked about reports of 30 journalists in Mumbai testing positive for COVID-19, Lav Aggarwal said that journalists need to take greater precautions while on their job and ensure social distancing and wear masks. "It is very unfortunate news. When you (journalists) attend your call of duty, kindly take the required precautions, follow the norms of social distancing & wear face masks," the joint secretary said.

80% of cases asymptomatic with mild symptoms

The officials also said that 80% of COVID-19 cases are asymptomatic and with mild symptoms. "Testing criteria are very detailed as of now. Whoever needs to be tested as per sampling criteria will be tested. We are also testing people with severe respiratory illness (SARS) and influenza-like illness (ILI)," the Health Ministry said.

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