New Delhi, Apr 19 (IANS): The number of total Covid positive cases in India as risen up to 17,615 as per latest data released by the ICMR.

The release said "Today, on 19 April 2020, till 9 pm, 27,824 samples have been reported. Of these, 1,135 were positive for SARS-CoV-2."

As per ICMR a "total of 4,01,586 samples from 3,83,985 individuals have been tested as on 19 April 2020, till 9 PM. 17,615 individuals have been confirmed positive among suspected cases and contacts of known."

Union Health Minister 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," Harsh Vardhan 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.