The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday urged people to maintain social distancing norms and avoid public spaces whenever possible. India has so far recorded over 12,700 cases and 420 deaths.
However, even as the numbers continue to rise, the situation may be less grim than anticipated -- at least in comparison to other countries.
During the press conference on Thursday, Dr. Raman R Gangakhedkar of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that the number of people tested to find a single coronavirus-positive in India was much higher than that of other countries including Japan, US and UK.
"In Japan, to find one positive case, 11.7 persons are tested. In Italy that number is 6.7, in US it's 5.3, in UK it's 3.4. Here in India, we do 24 tests for one positive case," Gangakhedkar said.
"Our population is over 130 crores but everyone is not vulnerable that's why we have divided the country in different zones. There are many districts where no case has been reported. If we consider their population as a base, that will be misleading," he added.
Lav Agarwal, the Joint Secretary of MoHFW added that the ratio of tests to population would not give a correct indication as to whether the government was testing an adequate number of people.
"A particular data can be interpreted in many ways. Our effort is to detect every single positive case. For that, there is properly defined criteria," he said, adding that the government's priority was to test every person who fell into the "category defined by the Health Ministry and all Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) and Influenza Like Illness (ILI) patients".
"We are conducting tests for people falling in these categories even in areas where no case has been reported," Agarwal said.
India has so far recorded over 12,700 cases and 420 deaths, as per data provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
(With inputs from agencies)
