Need for Adequate Testing, Aggressive Containment by States to Manage Covid-19 Crisis: Amitabh Kant

Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Sunday stressed on the need for adequate testing, accompanied by aggressive containment by the states to manage COVID-19 crisis.

"Some States/Cities think that they can manage COVID-19 crisis without adequate testing. This is not possible. Examples of Kerala/Karnataka/Korea demonstrates that testing, tracing, treatment accompanied by aggressive containment and public adherence to masks and distancing is key," Kant said in a tweet.

With 9,195 fatalities till Sunday, India is the ninth worst-hit nation in terms of COVID-19 deaths, while the highest spike of 11,929 cases took the tally to over 3.20 lakh, of which over half have recovered from the disease.

According to the Union health ministry data, the country recorded 311 new deaths in the 24-hour period till Sunday morning while the recovery rate rose to above 50 per cent with 1,62,378 patients cured so far, leaving 1,49,348 cases active.

The Johns Hopkins University, which has been compiling COVID-19 data from all over the world, put India in the ninth position in terms of death toll and fourth in terms of total caseload.