New Delhi, April 17: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday said the nationwide lockdown, which has been extended till May 3, helped to reduce the doubling rate of coronavirus cases in the country. Addressing a press conference, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, also said India's ratio between recoveries and deaths is better than other coronavirus-affected countries. Coronavirus Tracker Live.

"Before lockdown, the doubling rate of coronavirus cases was about three days, but according to data in the past 7 days, the doubling rate of cases now stands at 6.2 days," Agarwal said. "The doubling rate is lower than the national level in 19 states and UTs such as Kerala, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Ladakh, Puducherry, Delhi, Bihar, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, UP, Punjab, Assam and Tripura," he added. State-Wise List of 170 Coronavirus Hotspots in India.

According to the ministry, the ratio between recovered coronavirus patients and deaths stands at 80:20 in India. "It is higher than several other countries," Agarwal said. He also said the government focusing on developing a vaccine for coronavirus infection. "We are working on recombinant BCG, convalescent plasma therapy and monoclonal antibodies to fight COVID-19," he said. The number of coronavirus cases increased to 13,387 on Friday morning.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has reported that 12,581 individuals have tested positive for coronavirus in India and 1,206 tested positive on Thursday. ICMR said that a total of 3.02 lakh samples from 2.86 lakh individuals have been tested as on April 16 out of which 12,581 individuals have been confirmed positive among suspected cases and contacts of known positive cases in India.

This translates into only 4.39 per cent of the individuals who were tested were positive for COVID-19. On Thursday till 9 p.m., 27,256 samples have been reported and of these 1,206 were positive for SARS-CoV-2, translating into a conversion rate of 4.42 per cent.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 17, 2020 04:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).