Lok Sabha Question No. 940 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-09-18
Subject: Assessment of Covid Prevention
Ministry: HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
Asked by: Manish Tewari

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 940 TO BE ANSWERED ON 18 th SEPTEMBER, 2020

## ASSESSMENT OF COVID PREVENTION

## 940. SHRI MANISH TEWARI:

Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of the first information, first update from World Health Organization received by the Government about COVID- 19 and the SARS COV - 2 virus;
- (b) the first Indian case of COVID - 19 reported along with the steps taken by the Government to prevent the spread and proliferation of COVID - 19 between the period when the first case was reported and the National lockdown was put in place;
- (c) the number of COVID - 19 cases and deaths reported in India on 23rd March 2020 when the  National lockdown  was  imposed  and  the  total  number  of  cases and  deaths  as  of  1st September 2020;
- (d)  whether  the  Government  consulted  the  States/ UTs in  advance  before  imposition  of National Lockdownon 23rd March 2020, if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor; and
- (e) whether the National Lockdown has been a total failure in containing the spread and the proliferation of the disease, if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF H EALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE (SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

- (a): World Health Organization, Country office, India alerted India on 6 th January, 2020 about outbreak of pneumonia of unknown origin in Wuhan city of China. WHO issued a statement on 9 th January, 2020 about a novel coronavirus, which was later named as SARS -CoV - 2 virus and the disease was named COVID -19 by WHO on 11 th February, 2020.
- (b) : The first Indian case of COVID - 19  was  reported on 30 th January 2020. Before the Nationwide lockdown, a series of actions were undertaken in a pro - active, graded and pre -emptive manner based on the evolving scenario.

To prevent entry of disease, India started point of entry screening of passen ports,  airports  and  land  border  crossings  on  18th  Jan uary,  2020  to  identify  symptomatic travelers  from  affected  countries.  Subsequently  universal  screening  was  done  for passengers.  Integrated  Disease  Surveillance  Programme  followed  up  these  internatio travelers  in  the  community  and  contacts  of  suspect s  and  confirmed  cases.  In  all  such States/Districts that reported cases, a containment strategy was followed to contain and large outbreaks. Travel advisories and guidelines on surveillance, contact tracing collection & transportation, cli nical management, discharge policy, infection prevention & control and home quarantine were also issued.

- (c): The details are as under:
- (d): Between 16 - 23 rd March most of the State Governments/UTs resorted to partial or ful lockdown in their respective State/UTs based upon their assessment of the situation.

| Date         |   Cases |   Deaths |
|--------------|---------|----------|
| 23- 03- 2020 |     451 |        9 |
| 01- 09- 2020 | 3691166 |    65288 |

COVID - 19  is  a  highly  infectious  disease.  There  was  a  need  for  consistency  in approach  &  implement ation  in  a  scientific  manner  to  prevent  the  spread  of  the  virus break/suppress the chain of transmission.

Taking into consideration the above facts, the global experience and the need consistency  in  approach  and  implementation  of  various containment  measures  across  the country, a Nationwide lockdown was announced on 24 th March, 2020 to contain the spread of COVID - 19 in the country.

- (e) : By  imposing  country -wide  lock - down,  India  successfully  blunted  the  aggressive progression  of  COVID.  Th e  period  of  lockdown  helped  the  nation  create  much  required additional  health  infrastructure.  During  this  time,  dedicated  isolation  beds  reco increase of 22 times and dedicated ICU beds above 14 times to what existed in March 2 Similarly, labora tory capacity for testing COVID was increased nearly 10 times during th time.  Whereas  there  was  no  indigenous  manufacturing  of  PPE  and  N - 95  masks,  with  the requisite  standards,  at  that  point  in  time,  we  are  now  self - sufficient  and,  in  a  position,  to export the same. Similarly, very limited indigenous manufacturing ventilators was ava at the time of lockdown, this capacity was also enhanced to attain self - reliance in this regard.

During  this  period,  various  cadres  of  personnel  and  volunteers  across sectors  and departments for COVID related works and maintenance of other essential medical servi were worked out, trained through resources made available on the website of MoHFW, iGOT (online platform) by DOPT ( https://igot.gov.in/igot/ ).

It has been estimated that the decision of lockdown by slowing down the progres pandemic in India, prevented 14 -29 lakh cases and 37 -78 thousand deaths .