Coronavirus pandemic: India Covid-19 cases surge amid ICMR’s ‘peak prediction’ report farce, new outbreak in Beijing

Team Suno Neta Tuesday 16th of June 2020 03:27 AM

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(Representative photo by SJ Objio/Unsplash)

New Delhi: Coronavirus infections in India continue to surge as the country registered over 11,000 new coronavirus, Covid-19, cases for the third consecutive day, on Monday. According to the Union health ministry, the country saw 11,502 fresh infections in the last 24 hours.

According to the latest figures, the total number of coronavirus cases in India is now 343,026 and the death toll is 9,915 with 395 new deaths recorded in the last 24 hours.

ICMR junks its Covid-19 ‘peak prediction’ report

On Monday, the Indian Council of Medical Research has disowned a study report conducted by conducted by researchers from an operations research group the ICMR itself constituted. The report, which the media accessed on Sunday, said the lockdown pushed the peak of the pandemic by an estimated 34 to 76 days. It also helped bring down the number of infections by 69 to 97 per cent, which allowed time for the healthcare system to prepare for it.

Media quoted the research group’s report as saying: “In the scenario of intensified public health measures with 60 per cent effectiveness after lockdown, the demand can be met until the first week of November. After that, isolation beds could be inadequate for 5.4 months, ICU beds for 4.6 and ventilators for 3.9 months, projections by the health researchers showed.”

However, the ICMR said the report was “misleading” and it “doesn’t reflect the official position” of the government’s healthcare body.

The news reports attributing this study to ICMR are misleading. This refers to a non peer reviewed modelling, not carried out by ICMR and does not reflect the official position of ICMR. pic.twitter.com/OJQq2uYdlM
— ICMR (@ICMRDELHI) June 15, 2020

Over 100 Covid-19 cases in new Beijing outbreak

The World Health Organization, on Monday, said the Chinese capital, Beijing, witnessed a new outbreak of the coronavirus infections with over 100 patients admitted to hospitals with the disease. The UN health agency warned countries to be alert for a possible resurgence of Covid-19 infections as they ease lockdown restrictions.

This comes at a time when countries in Europe are also opening their borders for people to travel.

The WHO said the new outbreak was a cause for concern given Beijing’s size and connectivity.

Talking to reporters via videoconferencing, the WHO director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said. “Even in countries that have demonstrated the ability to suppress transmission, countries must stay alert to the possibility of resurgence.”

Revealing the new outbreak, he said, “Last week, China reported a new cluster of cases in Beijing, after more than 50 days without a case in that city. More than 100 cases have now been confirmed. The origin and extent of the outbreak are being investigated.”

The novel coronavirus, also named Covid-19 and SARS-CoV-2, originated from Wuhan in China’s Hubei province.

Latest global coronavirus stats from Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering

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