India records lowest daily growth rate in COVID-19 cases

The 13th meeting of the high-level Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 was held under the chairpersonship of Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Saturday.

The GOM was briefed on state-wise details of dedicated COVID-19 hospitals, along with the adequacy of isolation beds and wards, PPE kits, N95 masks, drugs, ventilators and oxygen cylinders, among others, the health ministry said.

The GoM was informed that domestic manufacturers, which were identified earlier, have already started producing PPE kits and masks, and that an adequate quantity of the same was available.

"As on date, more than one lakh PPE kits and N95 masks are being manufactured every day in the country. There are, at present, 104 domestic manufacturers of PPE and three of N95 masks in the country," the ministry said in a statement.

In addition, production of ventilators vide domestic manufacturers has also started and orders have been placed for more than 59,000 units through nine manufacturers, it added.

"The GoM was apprised that as of now, the death rate is around 3.1 per cent while the recovery rate is more than 20 per cent, which is comparatively better than most of the countries and may be taken as a positive effect of the lockdown in the country, along with the cluster management and containment strategy.

"The average doubling rate of the country is 9.1 days as of now," the ministry said.

The GoM was also informed that as of now, 5,062 people have been cured with a recovery rate of 20.66 per cent. Since Friday morning, an increase of 1,429 cases has been reported, the ministry said.

The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 775 and the number of cases climbed to 24,506 in the country on Saturday, according to the ministry.

The GoM also reviewed the testing strategy and availability of testing kits across the country, along with the strategy for hotspots and cluster management.

It was briefed about the number of public and private laboratories presently testing for COVID-19, along with the number of tests that are being conducted every day through this network of laboratories.

A detailed presentation on the COVID-19 status in the country, along with the response and management of the disease, was made for the ministers.

The GoM had a detailed deliberation on the measures taken as on date by the Centre and various states and Union territories for prevention, containment and management of coronavirus and all the districts were asked to follow and further strengthen their contingency plans to combat COVID-19, the ministry said.

The GoM also deliberated on the various tasks assigned to several empowered committees and it was informed that around 92,000 NGOs, self-help groups (SHGs) and civil society organisations were working and contributing by providing food to migrant workers across the country.

It was also informed that the national level meta-data of health workers, NSS, NYK, NCC, doctors etc. has been shared with all the states, districts and other officials to mobilise resources and volunteers (COVID warriors) to much-needed locations.

There is presently data for more than 1.24 crore human resources on the dashboard and it is continuously being updated with the addition of new groups and sub-groups according to specialisation, the GoM was informed.

The dashboard contains state and district-wise information about the number of human resources available from each group, along with the contact details of the respective state and district nodal officers.

"These COVID warriors are being trained through online platforms such as the ministry of health website and the iGOT training portal," the statement said.

Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep S Puri, Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar,Minister of State for Home Nityananda Rai and Minister of State for Shipping and Chemical and Fertilisers Mansukh Mandaviya, among others, were present at the meeting, along with other officials.