Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health
The government has rejected reports of a religion-wise mapping of the coronavirus spread. The clarification comes in wake of certain media reports claiming that the Centre was mulling a religion-based mapping to identify hotspots across the country and understand the origin and pattern of the spread of the virus community-wise.
"Any news about the religion-based mapping of COVID-19 is baseless, incorrect and irresponsible," Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary in the Union Health Ministry said at a media briefing today. "COVID-19 does not see people's caste, creed, or religion," he added.
In the last 24 hours, India has recorded 4213 cases of the virus, taking the total number of the infections to 67152 on Monday. About 20197 people have recovered so far, he said, adding that the recovery rate stood at 31,15 percent.
The health ministry further said that some clusters were identified in the country where a relatively large outbreak of COVID-19 was noticed. "It is important for us to focus on containment efforts in order to ensure we don't reach community transmission stage," Agarwal said.
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