Union health minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday said that the battle against the coronavirus disease is far from over.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Vardhan said that government is taking all necessary measures to prevent the spread of the disease.
“I want to remind the members that battle against Covid-19 is far from over. I wish to inform the house that government is taking all necessary measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in India,” said Vardhan.
He also said that India has been able to limit its cases and deaths per million to 3,320 and 55 respectively, which is one of the lowest in the world.
“Covid-19 testing is about 1 million tests per day which translates to 720 tests per million population per day, much higher than that stipulated by WHO which 140 tests per million per day. A total of 5,51,89,226 samples were tested as of September 11,” the health minister said.
His remarks come on a day when India’s Covid-19 tally inched closer to the five million-mark. However, the daily case count fell below 90,000.
Vardhan had said on Monday that the central government undertook the Covid-19 challenge with the highest level of political commitment. “It has been estimated that its decisions prevented approximately 14-29 lakh cases and 37-78 thousand deaths,” he had said.
The health ministry has said that the recovery rate in the country is now very close to 78 per cent, and that 60 per cent of the active cases are concentrated in five states: Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.