New Delhi, April 20: The doubling rate of coronavirus cases in India slowed down to 7.5 days during the coronavirus lockdown. Before the shutdown i.e. March 25, the doubling rate of COVID-19 was 3.4 days. Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry said, “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.” Lockdown 2.0: List of Services That Will Open After April 20 And Guidelines For Work Spaces, Coronavirus Hotspots, Vehicular Movements

There also a few districts in the country where no cases have reported in the past 28 days. These districts are Mahe in Puducherry, Kodagu in Karnataka and Pauri Garhwal in Uttarakhand. Meanwhile, the number of districts where no case has been reported in the last 14 days has increased to 59. The health ministry also declared Goa coronavirus-free state.

Lav Agarwal's Statement:

On April 17, the doubling rate of coronavirus in India was 6.2 days. The states and union territories where the doubling rate is lower than the national level include Kerala, Uttarakhand, Ladakh and Puducherry. Meanwhile, Kerala also has the highest recovery rate of 67 percent, which is the highest among all the states.

On Monday, India witnessed the sharpest spike of 1,553 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours. The number of COVID-19 cases in the country surged to 17,265. The death toll also increased to 543 with 36 more people lost their lives since Sunday morning. Till 2,547 people have recovered from the deadly virus so far.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 20, 2020 05:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).