Govt says lockdown period used to ramp up health infrastructure required for COVID-19 management

As of May 27, 930 dedicated COVID-19 hospitals with 1,58,747 Isolation beds, 20,355 ICU beds and 69,076 oxygen supported beds are available in the country, the government said.

The government has ramped up health infrastructure required for COVID-19 management during the period of lockdown imposed on Match 25 and extended thrice till May 31, the Centre said on Wednesday.

As of May 27, 930 dedicated COVID-19 hospitals with 1,58,747 Isolation beds, 20,355 ICU beds and 69,076 oxygen supported beds are available in the country, according to a government press release.

Besides, 2,362 dedicated COVID-19 health centres with 1,32,593 Isolation beds, 10,903 ICU beds and 45,562 oxygen supported beds have been operationalised, it said.

The government further said that 10,341 quarantine centres and 7,195 COVID-19 care centres with 6,52,830 beds are now available to combat the coronavirus disease in the country.

The Centre has also provided 113.58 lakh N95 masks and 89.84 lakh Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to the states, Union Territories and various central institutions.

The testing capacity has also been increased in the country through 634 labs, which includes 435 government laboratories and rest are private laboratories. Cumulatively, 32,42,160 samples have been tested so far for COVID-19, whereas, 1,16,041 samples were tested on Tuesday alone.

"Through a graded, pre-emptive and pro-active approach, Government of India is taking several steps along with the States/UTs for prevention, containment and management of COVID-19. These are being regularly reviewed and monitored at the highest level," the government statement said.

Noting the gains of lockdown, the government said, "Lockdown has garnered multiple gains, and primarily among them is that it has decelerated the pace of spread of the disease. According to the estimates made by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, a large number of deaths and cases have been averted."

"At the same time, during the lockdown period development of COVID-19 specific health infrastructure; capacity development of human resource through online training modules and webinars; increased testing capacity; increase in supplies, equipment, oxygen; issuing of relevant guidelines, standards prepared, circulated, adopted, practiced; development of diagnostics, drug trials, vaccine research; and on the technical side surveillance systems strengthened with more contact tracing, house to house surveys along with tools like Aarogya Setu was achieved," it said.

A total of 1,51,767 coronavirus cases have been reported in the country while 4,337 people have succumbed to COVID-19. Out of total confirmed cases, 64,426 persons have been cured and the recovery rate is pegged at 42.4%.

The fatality rate is 2.86% whereas the world average is 6.36%.