The Health Ministry (HM) of India recently released a report on COVID-19 statistics that reflected slowing down in the doubling rate of COVID-19 cases across the country. Given that asymptomatic patients can potentially serve as ‘silent carriers,’ the HM and the ICMR assured that the current testing strategies include testing such suspected asymptomatic patients as well. On Tuesday, 21st April, the HM officials announced that the rate at which COVID-19 cases are doubling in India has slowed down from 3.5 days (before lockdown) to 7.5 days, thereby emphasizing the need for lockdown and social distancing to prevent COVID-19 transmission.
As of now, 18 states (including Kerala and Odisha) have slower doubling rates than the national average of 7.5 days. Several places in Puducherry, Karnataka, and Uttarakhand have no new COVID-19 cases reported in the last 28 days. All these reports…
