<span style="color: #222222;">The Health Ministry today said 325 districts in &nbsp;the country have no cases of COVID19 while in 27 districts there have been no positive cases since last 14 days and as many as 1489 &nbsp;patients have recovered and discharged from the hospitals.<br />'' <br />'' Briefing the media in New Delhi &nbsp;today , an official from Health Ministry said a total of 941 fresh confirmed cases of COVID- 19 have been reported in the last 24 hours, this has taken the total number of patients to &nbsp;12,380, while 414 patients have died so far.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' The official also said &nbsp;the Union Health Minister held a video conference yesterday, with health functionaries and field officers of &nbsp;World Health Organisation, in which a micro-plan for clusters and outbreak containment of &nbsp;COVID-19 at district-level was discussed. He said, an action plan has been prepared on strengthening &nbsp;the country's ongoing surveillance by utilizing the services of &nbsp;WHO's national polio surveillance network team. &nbsp;<br />'' <br />'' He also informed that the &nbsp;Health Minister has held an interaction with industry leaders and assured that &nbsp;their &nbsp;concerns will be addressed. The Health official informed an advisory for safe drinking water practices during lockdown has been issued and the &nbsp;Public health department &nbsp;has been advised to augment water supplies with special focus on relief camps and for vulnerable sections of the society. He also said, Mahe district of &nbsp;Puducherry has reported &nbsp;no case since last 28 days.<br />'' <br />'' <br />'' The &nbsp;Home Ministry Representative &nbsp;said, &nbsp;the states have strengthened their efforts in implementing lockdown measures and the situation regarding essential commodities is satisfactory. She said, air, rail, road travel as well as services by the cab aggregators will be suspended till the 3rd of next month.<br />'' <br />'' A representative of Indian Council of Medical Research informed that over &nbsp;2.9 lakh samples &nbsp;have been tested so far. He said, 176 labs under ICMR network and 78 private sector labs are &nbsp;conducting COVID-19 tests in the country.&nbsp; He also said &nbsp;it is important for people to understand that the rapid antibody tests are not for early diagnosis, but for surveillance. The ICMR &nbsp;official said there are five lakh rapid test kits are available in the country till date.<br />'' <br />''On the occasion, a &nbsp;government official, &nbsp;while listing out several measures taken by &nbsp;Central government ministries informed that over 16 lakh free meals &nbsp;have distributed by Indian Railways till &nbsp;yesterday.</span><br />
News On AIR | April 16, 2020 5:49 PM
941 fresh confirmed cases of COVID- 19 reported in last 24 hours