Without lockdown, coronavirus cases in India could have been over 8 lakhs

New Delhi : The Union Health Ministry on Sunday estimated that India may had registered more than 8.2 lakh coronavirus cases if PM Narendra Modi had not announced a lockdown in the country on time.

"According to a statistical analysis by us, India would have registered a 41 per cent cumulative rise in the number of cases, taking the total to 2.08 lakh on April 11 and 8.2 lakh by April 15 had there been no lockdown or other containment measures," said Lav Agarwal, one of the most senior officials in the Union Health Ministry, in his daily briefing on Saturday.

The total number of coronavirus positive cases are rising gradually in the nation but they could have been rapid in case of lose guidelines.

Till date, India has registered 8,356 coronavirus cases and 273 deaths.

The officer also credited social distancing rules implemented by the centre across the country for the comparatively low coronavirus numbers.

"Since we started promoting social distancing and implemented the lockdown from March 25 along with other containment measures, there has been a decrease in cases," he added.

The end date of Central lockdown is nearing and it is likely that the Centre will extend it to April 30.

On Saturday, PM Narendra Modi had a discussion with the Chief Ministers of different states, who unanimously called for extending the lockdown in the nation.

After the meet, Maharashtra and Telangana announced that they will extend the complete shutdown till April 30.