The Indian Council Of Medical Research has come out and disowned a report credited to its name that had earlier come out predicting that India would see COVID-19 peak in mid-November.
On Monday, the Indian Council of Medical Research issued an official statement disowning the report that had earlier come out. It said that such a study never took place. It said,
“The news reports attributing this study to ICMR are misleading. This refers to non-peer-reviewed modeling, not carried out by ICMR, and does not reflect the official position of ICMR.”
As per the previously published report, a study was conducted by the researchers from the Operations Research Group of ICMR. In the report, the researchers said that the nationwide lockdown had reduced at least 69 to 97% of infections and hence the peak has been delayed by 34 to 76 days. The lockdown, as per the report, has allowed the hospitals to improve its infrastructure to fight the pandemic. The study also predicted that if the public health measures are 60% effective, the virus may hold on till the first week of November. It also said,
“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. While the lockdown will delay the onset of peak.. strengthening the health system response in terms of testing, isolation of cases, treatment, and contact tracing..will have to be the mainstay to reduce the impact of the pandemic in India until a vaccine becomes available.”
Results Yet To Be Finalised
The Indian Council of Medical Research also dismissed another report based on a survey that said one-third of people living in the containment areas and hotspots have already been infected with the novel coronavirus and may have also recovered from it. The survey also indicated that the infection in hotspots has been failed to contain. The Council dismissed it saying “speculative” and said that the results are yet to be finalized.
The number of cases in India continues to rise in the country. On Monday alone, India reported only 11,502 cases with 325 deaths. The tally of the country is at 3,32,424. The death toll is 9,520.
Source: Scroll.in
