New Delhi: A total of 586 hospitals in the country have been marked as dedicated COVID-19 hospitals with capacity of over one lakh isolation beds and 11,500 ICU beds reserved for coronavirus patients, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday.
Addressing a press briefing, Health Ministry's Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said the government has taken early preemptive action to identify COVID-19 hotspots in the country.
In the absence of a lockdown and other containment measures, there would have been over 8.2 lakh coronavirus cases in the country till April 15, he said.
According to the Health Ministry, 1,035 fresh COVID-19 cases and 40 deaths due to the disease were reported in the last 24 hours across the country, taking the total number of