The government should go for COVID-19 testing "aggressively and strategically", Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said today, as the total number of coronavirus-related deaths crossed 400. "In no way does a lockdown defeat the virus. It helps only to stop the virus for a short while. The only way to do this is to increase testing and chasing the virus and going beyond and this is my advice to the government -- use testing," the Congress MP said, addressing the media through a video app.
The COVID-19 pandemic has killed 414 in India, with 37 deaths reported in the last 24 Hours, government data shows. The number of people infected by the novel coronavirus in India has risen to 12,380 today. A list of 170 hotspot districts was released on Wednesday by the centre, which includes all six metros and most large cities. The list marked 123 districts as "large outbreaks" -- which includes all nine districts of national capital Delhi. Mumbai, Kolkata, nine districts of Bengaluru Urban, Hyderabad, Chennai, Jaipur and Agra were among the areas marked hotspots also on the list.
On Wednesday, India was praised by the International Monetary Fund Wednesday for its proactive decision of nationwide lockdown in its fight against coronavirus. A day earlier, the IMF in its World Economic Outlook had forecast India's growth rate to be 1.9 per cent in 2020.
On March 25, India entered a three-week lockdown, which was slated to end on April 14. The lockdown was extended till May 3.
