COVID-19 doubling rate improves to 7.5 days: Health Ministry

New Delhi [India], April 20 (ANI): The government on Monday said that India's COVID-19 doubling rate has improved to 7.5 days from 3.4 days before the lockdown was enforced.
"India's doubling rate before the lockdown was 3.4 days. It has now improved to 7.5 days. As per data on April 19, in 18 states, the rate is better than the national average," Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, said at a daily briefing here.
Aggarwal informed that various states and UTs have a doubling rate of less than 20 days.
"Delhi has doubling rate of 8.5 days, Karnataka -- 9.2 days, Telangana -- 9.4 days, Andhra Pradesh -- 10.6 days, Jammu and Kashmir -- 11.5 days, Punjab -- 13.1 days, Chhattisgarh -- 13.3 days, Tamil Nadu -- 14 days and Bihar -- 16.4 days," he said.
He further informed that many states and UTs have a doubling rate of 20 to 30 days.
"Andaman and Nicobar -- 20.1 days, Haryana -- 21 days, Himachal Pradesh -- 24.5 days, Chandigarh -- 25.4 days, Assam -- 25.8 days, Uttarakhand -- 26.6 days and Ladakh -- 26.6 days," Agarwal said.
Odisha and Kerala have a doubling rate of more than 30 days, he added.
Agarwal stated that Mahe in Puducherry, Kodagu in Karnataka and Pauri Garhwal in Uttarakhand have not reported any COVID-19 case in the last 28 days.
"The number of districts where no case has been reported in the last 14 days has increased to 59 in 23 states and UTs. Goa is now COVID-19 free," he said.
With 1,553 fresh cases of coronavirus reported in the last 24 hours, the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in India has reached 17,265, Agarwal said.
As many as 2,546 people have recovered from the disease so far during the daily media briefing on the coronavirus. "This takes the cure percentage to 14.75 per cent," he said.
"A total of 17,265 confirmed cases have been reported in India including 2,546 people have recovered. A total of 36 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours," Agarwal said.
He underlined that the Health Ministry has expressed its views that India wants to work with G20 nations to develop the vaccine to combat COVID-19.
He further said that ministry has also issued guidelines regarding precautionary measures to be adhered to in government offices. (ANI)