With lockdown India prevented fatalities between 37k-78k: Harsh Vardhan

New Delhi : On the first day of Monsoon Session in Parliament, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan told the lower house that with early implementation of lockdown in India, we prevented around 14–29 lakh cases and 37–78,000 deaths from coronavirus in starting four months.

"These four months were utilised to create additional health infrastructure, enhance human resource and produce within India critical elements such as PPEs, N-95 masks and ventilators. A case in point is the increase in dedicated isolation beds 36.3 times and dedicated ICU beds above 24.6 times to what existed in March 2020. Whereas there was no indigenous manufacturing of PPE, with the requisite standards, at that point in time, we are now self-sufficient and, in a position to even export the same," he said.

The minister also said that India has been able to limit its cases and deaths per million to 3,328 and 55 respectively, which is one of the lowest in the world as compared to similarly affected countries.

The maximum cases and deaths have been primarily reported from Maharashtra, Andhr Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, West Bengal, Bihar, Telangana, Odisha, Assam, Kerala and Gujarat. All these states have reported at least 100,000 cases.

"Many of the epidemiological parameters, such as mode of transmission, subclinical infection, period of virus shedding, role of immunity etc. are still being researched. Once a person is exposed to the infection, the disease may develop anytime between 1-14 days," he said in Lok Sabha.