Kerala reported 39 new COVID-19 cases and Maharashtra detected 28 new ones today.

The ministry of home affairs said that 10,000 ventilators have been ordered as a preparation for COVID-19 Outbreak. Bharat Electronics, a state-owned defence company, has been asked to procure 30,000 ventilators in 2 months.

India ranked 57th out of 195 countries in the global health security index which looks at the capacity of the countries for stopping outbreaks at the source. India’s overall scores are better than the average score of all countries. But, the scores for biosafety, medical countermeasures, personnel deployment in the health system and data integration were 0 out of 100.

India scored 12.5 for emergency preparedness and response planning, 24 in biosecurity and 29.6 in healthcare access. Scores for exercising response plans (100) and laboratory systems (83.3) are higher.

(Compiled by Shreya Raman)