New Delhi, Apr 19 (IANS): Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan on Sunday asserted that doubling rate of Covid-19 cases has increased from three days before imposition of lockdown in March to 9.7 days now.

"The rate of growth of new cases has been steadying for a while. As per the data received today by 8 a.m., over the past seven days, the doubling rate is 7.2 days, for the past 14 days it is 6.2, and over past 3 days it stands at 9.7. Before the lockdown, India's doubling rate was about 3 days," he said.

The Health Minister said that the doubling rate is lower despite the fact that number of tests done every day have increased by almost 14 times.

"Same way, if you look at growth factor -- from 15th March to 31st, it was 2.1, whereas in April it has come down to 1.2 which is a good drop of 40 per cent which is a positive indication and is really encouraging for the whole country," he said.

The figures indicate that the total number of cases are not increasing and may start stabilising, he added.

Harsh Vardhan's comments came after he reviewed the situation at Delhi's Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital.