RUCHIKA CHITRAVANSHI Health ministry: Lives are important, so is livelihood

On Thursday, the day the country registered a record number of fresh coronavirus cases (nearly 84,000), the health ministry defended the government's decision to unlock many more businesses and public transport, saying that “lives are important but so is livelihood”.

Earlier, when various government departments were batting for opening up and allowing movement of people, citing economic concerns, the health ministry was all for extending the lockdown to arrest the spread of the Covid-19 infection.

Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, while addressing a press briefing on Covid-19, said the government had adopted a graded approach to unlocking and opening of economic activity. “Prior to such opening, the government has ensured that prerequisites are in place — adequate testing, hospital infrastructure such as oxygen and ICU beds and protocols for clinical treatment.”

As part of Unlock 4.0, state governments cannot impose any lockdowns outside of the containment zones without consulting the central government.

India, meanwhile, registered the highest single-day increase of Covid-19 cases and inched close to the four-million mark. At the end of April, India had less than 40,000 coronavirus infections. The cases have grown almost hundredfold

since.

According to health ministry data, five states accounted for more than half of the total active Covid-19 cases in the country, with one-fourth being from Maharashtra alone.

In the last two weeks, Delhi, after seeing a decline in total cases, is witnessing another surge. The national capital has seen a 50 per cent increase in daily Covid-19 deaths on a week-on-week basis from August 13 to September 2, data showed. Karnataka has seen a 9.6 per cent increase for the same period in daily average deaths.

India is recording 49 deaths per million people against the global average of 111. And while the number of tests has increased to 1.1 million in a single day and 40.5 million so far, a large number of these are rapid antigen tests, which are not considered the most accurate.