300 districts COVID-19 free, 197 districts non-hotspots: Dr Harsh Vardhan

New Delhi [India], April 26 (ANI): As the battle against COVID-19 in India peaks, the situation at the ground level is fast improving. At least 300 districts are disease-free non-affected areas and about 197 districts are non-hotspots, said Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Sunday.
According to Dr Vardhan, the hot spot districts (HSDs) are moving towards being the non-hot spot districts (NHSDs).
"In the last three days, the doubling rate has come to 10.5 days. The situation in the country is improving. Hotspots districts are being turned into non-hotspots districts. In the last seven days, there are at least 66 districts where no new case has emerged," said Dr Vardhan during his visit to the AIIMS Traum Centre here.
"Similarly, about 48 districts have not seen any positive case in the last 14 days. As many as 31 districts have not seen a fresh case in the last 21 days and 16 districts have not reported a new case in the past 28 days," added Dr Vardhan.
Overall, there 300 districts that are disease-free non-affected areas and about 197 districts as non-hotspots, which hardly have one or two cases, said the Health Minister.
As on date, a total of 26,917 people have been confirmed positive for COVID-19 in the country, while 826 deaths have been reported so far.
The Health Minister took the stock of the preparedness at the Trauma Centre to overcome COVID-19. He visited various wards having isolation facility for COVID-19 patients.
He also spoke to some COVID-19 affected patients through video call over the phone and enquired about their well-being. He also sought their feedback about the facilities at AIIMS.
Dr Vardhan urged the people to observe the lockdown 2.0 and to treat it as an effective intervention to cut down the spread of COVID-19.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet Secretary had a detailed video conferencing with all the Chief Secretaries and States/UTs to review the preparedness for COVID-19 response.
The States with high cases loads should focus on effective implementation of lockdown measures and containment strategy, said the Cabinet Secretary. He also asked them to focus on medical infrastructure and ensure adequate availability of isolation and ICU beds, ventilators, etc. (ANI)