India can bring down positivity rate to less than 5 pc in next 3 weeks, says AIIMS doctor

India can bring down the positivity rate to less than five per cent in the next three weeks, head of the department of medicine at All India Institute Of Medical Science (AIIMS), Dr Naveet Wig said on Sunday. "We can bring down the positivity rate to less than five per cent in India, in the next three weeks if we all take responsibility and abide by COVID appropriate behaviour," Dr Wig said while addressing a joint conversation on issues related to the COVID19 situation with the Director of AIIMS (Delhi ) Dr Randeep Guleria, Director General of Health Services (DGHS), Dr Sunil Kumar, and Chairman of Medanta Dr Naresh Trehan.

He further highlighted that severe restrictions have to implemented to pull down the positivity rate of COVID-19 cases. "All district officials must monitor district's positivity rate and aim to keep it below 1-5 per cent. Mumbai had 26 per cent positivity rate at one point but after severe restrictions, it came down to 14 per cent. Delhi is struggling at 30 per cent. We must impose strict restrictions."

The doctor said, "If we have to defeat the disease, we will have to save healthcare workers. Many of them are testing positive. If we save healthcare workers, they will be able to save patients. If we save both, only then will be able to save the economy." "To link all of this we will have to break the chain, we will have to bring down the number of patients. Our only goal should be to break the chain," the doctor further said.

So far, India has reported 1,69,60,172 coronavirus infections and currently has 26,82,751 active cases.