New Delhi: The Union Health ministry has made it official that the government has no plans to vaccinate the entire country against Coronavirus.
In reply to a question on Tuesday, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said: "I just want to make this clear that the government has never spoken about vaccinating the entire country. It's important that we discuss such scientific issues, based on factual information only."
The statement of the Health Secretary has contradicted the claims of Union Health minister Harsh Vardhan, who had on Monday asserted that the government has planned to vaccinate about 30 crore people with Covid vaccine by August 2021.
Bhushan also added that the average daily positivity rate in India has been 3.72 per cent and with 211 cases per million, India has the lowest cases per million count "among all the big nations."
While data from the past seven days indicate that cases are increasing in European nations, the cumulative positivity rate has decreased in India, he noted.
The cumulative positivity rate fell from 7.15 per cent to 6.69 per cent between November 11 and December 1. The number of recoveries had exceeded the number of new Covid-19 infections in India in the month of November, the Health Secretary added.
Commenting on allegations against Serum Institute of India's Covishield vaccine, Bhushan said: "The vaccine timelines in India will not be affected in any manner by adverse events. Initial findings did not necessitate stopping Oxford Covid-19 vaccine trials."
Meanwhile, with 31,118 new Covid-19 cases, the total tally of Coronavirus cases has climbed to 94,62,809 cases, which includes 4,35,603 active cases, 88,89,585 recoveries and 1,37,621 deaths. The country has reported 41,985 recoveries in the last 24 hours and 482 deaths in a single day on Tuesday.
Punjab reimposed night curfew from Tuesday in all cities and towns from 10 pm to 5 am in order to tackle the rising number of Covid cases.