2nd wave of COVID-19 not over yet, cannot lower guard: Govt
New Delhi: The Union government on Friday stressed on vaccination and following COVID-19 protocols as it noted that the second wave of the pandemic is not over yet and people should not lower their guard.
Though daily new CPVOD-19 cases continue to show a declining trend, 71 districts reported a case positivity rate of more than 10 per cent from June 23 to 29, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said at a press conference.
"The second wave of COVID-19 is not over yet," he said.
NITI Aayog Member (Health) Dr V K Paul said, "We are not safe till the entire nation is safe. There cannot be a lowering of guard. Virus keeps evolving."
He said multi-disciplinary teams of the Central government have been sent to Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Manipur in view of high number of COVID-19 cases being reported daily by these states.
About tackling a possible third wave of COVID-19 infection, Paul said, "We will be prepared for the third wave in rural areas and for children with testing facilities, ventilators, medicines and containment measures."
"At the same time, if we are disciplined then the third wave will not come."
Responding to criticism over the pace of the vaccination drive, Agarwal stressed that an average India is vaccinating 50 lakh individuals daily since June 21, and it is equivalent to inoculating the entire population of Norway every day.
"So far, 34 crore people — which is equal to the entire population of the US — have been vaccinated with at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine since the drive began on January 16," he said.
"We are running a marathon, not a 100-metre race."
To a question on the Delta-plus variant, Agarwal said that so far, 56 cases have been detected in the genomes sequenced so far.
India saw a single-day rise of 46,617 new coronavirus infections, taking the tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,04,58,251. The national recovery rate has crossed 97 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday. The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 4,00,312 with 853 daily fatalities.
The active cases have further declined to 5,09,637, comprising 1.67 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 97.01 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.
A net decline of 13,620 cases has been recorded in the total number of active COVID-19 cases in a span of 24 hours.
Also, 18,80,026 tests were conducted on Thursday, taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 41,42,51,520, while the daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.48 per cent. It has been less than five per cent for 25 consecutive days, the ministry said.
Weekly positivity rate has declined to 2.57 per cent, according to the health ministry. Recoveries continue to outnumber daily new cases for 50th consecutive days.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,95,48,302, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.31 per cent, the data stated.
As cases of COVID-19 surge in six states, the Centre on Friday deployed a team of experts to Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Manipur to support the states governments in their efforts to carry out a targeted COVID response and management, and effectively tackling the pandemic.
According to Union Health Ministry, the two-member high-level team to these six states comprises a clinician and a public health expert.
The teams of experts would visit the states immediately and monitor the overall implementation of COVID-19 management, especially in testing, including surveillance and containment operations; Covid appropriate behaviour and its enforcement; availability of hospital beds, sufficient logistics including ambulances, ventilators, medical oxygen etc, and COVID-19 vaccination progress, the health ministry said in its official statement.
The teams will monitor the situation and also suggest remedial actions, it said, adding that the Central teams would assess the situation and suggest remedial actions on public health activities to the respective state governments.
The team to Manipur will be led by Dr L Swasticharan, Additional DDG and Director EMR; team to Arunachal Pradesh will be led by Dr Sanjay Sadhukhan, Professor AIIH&PH; for Tripura Dr RN Sinha; for Kerala Dr Ruchi Jain, Public Health Specialist Gr II, RoHFW; for Odisha Dr A Dan, Public Health Specialist AIIH&PH and for Chhattisgarh Dr Dibakar Sahu, Assistant Professor, AIIMS Raipur.
As an ongoing effort to strengthen efforts of various state and UT governments for Covid management, the Central government has been deputing Central teams from time to time to visit various states and UTs.
These teams interact with the state and UT authorities and get a first-hand understanding of the challenges and issues being faced by them so as to strengthen their ongoing activities and remove bottlenecks, if any, the statement said.
Moreover, pregnant women in India are now eligible to get vaccinated against Covid with the union health ministry Friday giving the approval based on recommendations of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI).
The decision empowers pregnant women to make an informed choice on taking the Covid vaccination, the ministry said, adding these women can now register on CoWIN or walk-in to the nearest Covid vaccination centre to get themselves inoculated.
The decision has been communicated to all the states and union territories to implement it under the ongoing National Covid Vaccination Program, it said in a statement.
