Rate at which coronavirus cases doubling in India slows to 7.5 days: Health ministry

oNEW DELHI: The Union health ministry said on Monday the rate at which the number of coronavirus cases in the country was doubling in the last one week has slowed to 7.5 days, as against 3.4 days before the nationwide lockdown was imposed.

As per data on April 19, 18 states and UTs have shown an improvement than the national average doubling rate, ministry of health and family affairs joint secretary Lav Agarwal said at a briefing.

He said that the states and UTs where the doubling time is less than 20 days are Delhi where it is doubling in 8.5 days, Karnataka in 9.2 days, Telangana 9.4 days, Andhra Pradesh 10.6 days, Jammu and Kashmir 11.5 days, Punjab 13.1 days, Chattisgarh 13.3 days, Tamil Nadu 14 days and Bihar 16.4 days.

Places where the doubling time is between 20 days to 30 days include Andaman and Nicobar Island where it was 20.1 days. In Haryana, the cases are doubling in 21 days, in Himachal Pradesh 24.5 days,