Delhi Fire officers disinfect an area at Nizamuddin, from where several people who attended an Islamic congregation earlier this month were tested positive for Covid-19, in New Delhi.
Unnao district in Uttar Pradesh has reported its first coronavirus case. The 23-year-old man was part of the Tablighi Jamaat gathering that took place in Delhi's Nizamuddin. Upon his return from Delhi, a team of doctors' rapid response shifted him to a quarantine facility at Saraswati Medical College on Tuesday. Along with him, a sample of 32 other people was also taken for coronavirus testing. On Thursday, reports of 28 people came out as negative, however, a Tablighi Jamaat member tested positive for the virus. The administration is now proceeding further to seal the entire area.
India needs to ramp-up coronavirus tests
Meanwhile, experts have suggested that India needs to "significantly ramp up" the number of tests done across the country to trace COVID-19 infection if the virus is to be contained in time. The death toll due to coronavirus rose to 414 and the number of cases to 12,380 in the country on Thursday, according to the Union Health Ministry. While the number of active COVID-19 cases is 10,477, as many as 1,488 people have been cured and discharged and one had migrated, it said.
Data obtained from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said, till April 14, the number of samples tested stood at 2,44,893, an increase of 27,339 from the corresponding figure till the previous day (2,17,554). Experts feel the figures are modest for a count of the size of 1.3 billion and "much more number of tests" are needed to combat COVID-19 outbreak in the country.
According to worldometers.info which maintains a global database on coronavirus cases and tests conducted, the US, where over 26,000 COVID-19 deaths have occurred, has done 31,00,387 tests averaging about 9,367 per million of population. The figures for India is 2,44,893 tests averaging 177 per million of population.
Spain and Italy, two countries which have also seen several thousands of fatalities, have done 6,00,000 and 10,73,689 tests respectively.
Dr Ravi Shekhar Jha, Senior Consultant and Head of the Department of Pulmonology at Fortis Escorts, Faridabad, said India is going in the right direction but it is not enough.
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