The Union Health Ministry on Monday asserted that no religion-based mapping of Covid-19 patients is taking place. Talking to media persons Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary of Health Ministry, said that Covid-19 spreads through not following dos and don’ts and neglecting precautions, not religion or region. He termed the reports of religion-based mapping of Covid-19 patients as “baseless, incorrect and irresponsible”.
Responding to a query on several media reports indicating religion-based mapping of the disease, Lav Agarwal said: “Any news which says this (religion-based mapping) is incorrect. It is very irresponsible news; the Supreme Court has already said that no fake news should be published, and news should be published after checking facts. We (through the news) should not spread fear. We should fight this disease with unity. I request that nobody should encourage non-factual news.”
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Agarwal insisted that the spread of Covid-19 has nothing to do with race, religion and area, and instead the viral infection spreads when people do not follow dos and don’ts and also do not take requisite precautions to protect them against the disease. “It is important for us through the media to talk to everybody and explain to them what dos and don’ts they have to follow,” he added.
He insisted on fighting the stigma associated with coronavirus. “People having Covid-19 symptoms should come forward to report so that they don’t spread the infection to their family members and others,” added Agarwal.
According to the Health Ministry, 4,213 new coronavirus cases and 97 deaths were reported in the last 24 hrs till Monday 8 a.m., which takes total cases in the country to 67,152 and death toll to 2,206.
The Health Ministry said that as per ICMR review from lab surveillance data, in initial cases for RT-PCR positive results, patients turned negative after 10 days. “Recent studies have also shown that viral load peaks in the pre-symptomatic period (2 days before symptoms) and goes down over the next 7 days,” said the Health Ministry on the Centre’s revised discharge policy.
Recovery rate improved, no community transmission: Health Ministry
The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Monday said that the recovery rate of the Covid-19 patients in the country improved up to 31.15 per cent with a total 1,559 individuals cured from the disease in the last 24 hours.
“While at least 4,213 new cases were reported since yesterday, there are 1559 people who have recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours, taking the recovery rate to 31.15 per cent,” Lav Agarwal said:
“Total number of cases in India is 67,152 so far, of which 44,029 people are under medical supervision and total 20,917 people have been cured of the disease.”
India on Monday saw the highest jump in the coronavirus cases reported in a single day, and 97 fatalities in 24 hours.
The Health Ministry avoided mentioning the number of fatalities and remained in the denial mode whether it constitutes a community transmission or not, during the press conference.
Asked by the media whether or not the country has entered the community transmission stage, Agarwal said: “We have found few clusters and have noticed relatively large outbreak in a few places. Even Director, AIIMS said that if we do not contain the zones properly, the rate of transmission will become higher. Therefore it is important for us to maintain at this stage only and scale-up containment efforts and ensure that we don’t go at the community transmission stage.”
