Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman/File
India may have crossed the COVID-19 peak in September, TOI quoted the Finance Ministry as saying on the basis of the caseload data for the 14-day period from September 17 to 30. The ministry, in its monthly economic outlook report for September, also cautioned that the disease was far from over and urged all stakeholders to push for economic recovery as positivity rate improves.
During this period, the seven-day moving average of daily positive cases had steadily declined from about 93,000 to 83,000 while the seven-day moving average of daily tests rose from about 1,15,000 to 1,24,000, the report stated.
"Yet, the declining positivity rate at all-India level sets the stage to further push up the frontiers of economic recovery. For this, all stakeholders need to get into the act as remaining restrictions on access and mobility are further eased. More than "social distancing" it is "self-protection with due precautions" that better fits into the context of "jaan bhi aur jahaan bhi", the ministry mentioned in its monthly report.
According to the report, economic indicators allude to a steady recovery in almost all sectors with some sectors shooting above their previous-year levels as well. "This is despite headwinds of increasing COVID cases in non-metro cities and rural areas and rising food prices. Positive results from the implementation of the Atmanirbhar Bharat package and unlocking of the economy are evident in India's high-frequency real sector indicators of September," the report said.
