New Delhi, April 11: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday rejected the purported "ICMR study" which was cited by many to claim that India would have had up to 8.2 lakh coronavirus cases by April 15 had it not been for the 21-day nationwide lockdown. Addressing a press conference on Friday, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, categorically said there was no such study by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Coronavirus Tracker Live News Updates.

Asked about the purported "ICMR study", Lav Agarwal said: "There is no such report. Please understand that if we work collectively and very hard, we will manage the cases. If we make any mistakes, we will be back to the old place where we cannot be called successful." According to a report by The Indian Express, the so-called study by ICMR was also quoted by the Ministry of External Affairs during a media briefing on Thursday. Coronavirus Cases in India Jump to 7447 With Highest Single-Day Surge in Deaths, 40 COVID-19 Patients Die in 24 Hours.

"Most importantly, epidemiologically speaking, the lockdown has reduced the reproductive rate of the virus here. Scientific estimates suggest that without social distancing measures, the reproductive rate would have been 2.5 people per day, but with the lockdown, we have been able to reduce social exposure by over 75%, leading to an infection rate of around 0.625 persons per day," MEA’s Secretary (West) Vikas Swarup was quoted as saying.

"Let me put this another way: without the lockdown, we could have had up to 820,000 cases by 15 April. With the lockdown, we are around 6,000 cases currently. More importantly, the cases are largely localised to 78 districts that account for over 80 per cent of the cases," Swarup had added. Not just the MEA, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Amit Malviya also cited the purported "ICMR study" to justify the nationwide lockdown.

"Corona infections would have crossed 8.20 lakh in India by 15 April if there was no lockdown here: ICMR Research. The number of Corona positive patients is around 6,400 as on 10 April," Malviya tweeted hours before the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare denied the existence of any such report. Despite the government's clarification, Malviya hasn't deleted his tweet.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 11, 2020 10:13 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).