Covid positivity rate not low enough to lift curbs: Delhi Health Min Jain
New Delhi: Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday said the government will monitor the Covid situation for three to four days to confirm the trend of positivity rate before reviewing the curbs in the national Capital.
He said the city is likely to see around 13,000 cases on Wednesday with a positivity rate of around 24 per cent.
"The Covid positivity rate has come down from 30 per cent to 22.5 per cent in Delhi. The rate should be half of it. We will monitor the situation for three to four days," the minister said on reviewing the curbs in the city.
Delhi on Wednesday reported a slight uptick in the daily Covid positivity rate as a marginally higher number of tests a day ago threw up 13,785 fresh Covid-19 cases. Significantly, the city also reported 35 more deaths from the virus, taking the toll here to 25,460.
A total of 57,776 tests were conducted to detect the infection on Tuesday, up from 52,002 on Monday. The positivity rate went up to 23.8 per cent.
Responding to a question about the low rate of testing in Delhi, Jain said no one is being denied a Covid test and the authorities are following the guidelines issued by the Centre.
"They said high-risk contacts of Covid patients and those with symptoms should be tested. On Tuesday, they clarified that tests be conducted in some pockets in the community too, which we are doing," he said. Delhi had been conducting 50,000 to 60,000 Coronavirus tests daily for the last six months, he added.
Meanwhile, with 2,82,970 new infections being reported in a day, India's total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 3,79,01,241, which includes 8,961 cases of the Omicron variant, according to the Union Health ministry data updated on Wednesday.
The active cases have increased to 18,31,000, the highest in 232 days. They were 18,95,520 on May 31 last year.
The death toll has climbed to 4,87,202 with 441 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.
The cumulative Covid vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 159.54 crore on Wednesday, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stated.
More than 62 lakh (62,39,005) vaccine doses were administered in the day till 7 pm.
Over 61 lakh precaution doses have been administered to frontline workers, healthcare workers, and citizens aged 60 and above, the ministry stated.
As much as 30 per cent of individuals lose vaccine-acquired immunity after six months, according to a study conducted by AIG Hospitals along with the Asian Healthcare Foundation on Vaccine Immunity.
The study was conducted on 1,636 healthcare workers who were fully vaccinated against COVID-19, a press release from AIG Hospitals said.
"Our study results were at par with other global studies where we found that almost 30 per cent of individuals had antibody levels below protective immunity level of 100 AU/ml after six months. These individuals were majorly above 40 years with co-morbidities like hypertension and diabetes. Out of the total, 6 per cent did not develop any immune protection at all," Dr D Nageshwar Reddy, Chairman, AIG Hospitals said.
The results clearly indicated that with age, immunity waning is directly proportional which means that younger people have more sustained antibody levels than the elderly population.
One of the most important results of the study showed that people above 40 years with co-morbidities like hypertension and diabetes have significantly less antibody response after six months of getting fully vaccinated, the release further said.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up state governments for failing to disburse claims to the next of kin of Covid victims and issued a show-cause notice to the Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary as to why contempt action be not initiated against him.
The Apex Court asked the Chief Secretaries of Andhra Pradesh and Bihar to remain present virtually at 2 pm on Wednesday and explain why disbursals — Rs 50,000 ex gratia for COVID-19 death — have been so few in their states.
A bench of Justices M R Shah and Sanjiv Khanna said that it will pass orders at 2 pm and asked the state legal service authorities (SLSA) to reach the families who have lost their near and dear ones to COVID-19 to facilitate registration and disbursal of claims like it was done during the 2001 Gujarat earthquake.
The top court said it rejects the Covid death toll given by Bihar, and added that these are not actual but government figures.
"We are not going to believe that only 12,000 people died in the state of Bihar due to Covid. We want your Chief Secretary to be here virtually at 2 pm," the bench told the counsel appearing for the Bihar government.
