We’re far from the peak’: ICMR expert on COVID19

India is far from the Covid-19 peak, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) expert Dr Nivedita Gupta said during a joint briefing of the ICMR and Ministry of Health briefing on Covid-19 on Tuesday.

The expert said that India’s measures to curtail the disease have been effective and had been very good in the reduction in mortality.

“Instead of the use of the word ‘community transmission’, we need to understand the extent of the spread of the disease. We are far from the peak,” she said.

During the briefing, Ministry of Health, joint secretary, Lav Agarwal said that the Covid-19 fatality rate in India is 2.82%, one of the lowest in the world.

“73% of Covid-19 deaths in India are in people with co-morbidities,” Agrawal stated, adding that 10% of India’s population accounts for 50% of India’s Covid-19 linked deaths. Agarwal said that, till now, 95,527 coronavirus patients have recovered across the country. “The recovery rate is now 48.07%,” he added.

The officials also said that Covid-19 testing has been ramped up in the country. “Today, we are conducting 1 lakh 20 thousand tests every day,” Gupta said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)