AMN
Union Health Ministry has said that continuous decline in daily cases of Covid -19 and further improvement in recovery from infection is being noticed in the country.
Addressing media in New Delhi this evening, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said that continuous decline in daily cases is being noticed since India reported a peak with nearly four lakh 14 thousand cases on 7th May.
He said, now almost 88 per cent decline in such cases has been seen since the highest reported peak in daily new cases.
He said, in the last 24 hours only 51,666 cases of corona infection were reported.
Mr Agarwal also informed that till 4th of May, there were 531 districts in the country which were reporting over 100 cases daily, now the number has come down to 125 districts.
The Secretary said, till 10th May there were over 37 lakh active cases in the country and after that a continuous decline in such cases were noticed and now it has come down to the level of 6.13 lakh showing a decline by 83 per cent.
On recovery rate from the infection, Mr Agarwal said that the country is also witnessing a consistent increase in recovery rate.
He said, on 3rd May, the overall recovery rate was 81.8 per cent and now it has reached the mark of 96.7 per cent.
He said, currently 17.58 lakh tests of COVID -19 is being conducted on a daily basis as the cases are on a decline.
He said, there are currently 565 districts in the country where the case positivity rate is less than 5 per cent.
Mr Agarwal said, till 3 PM today, more than 31 crore 13 lakh vaccine doses have been given to the beneficiaries.
Mr Agarwal also appealed to the people not to lower their guard against the virus and follow Covid appropriate behavior strictly.
Secretary Department of Biotechnology, Dr Renu Swarup has said that the first Covid variant of concern was the one identified in UK and subsequently four variants, which WHO labelled as Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta.
During the media briefing Dr. Renu said that Delta variant is the one that was identified in India and in fact it was Indian scientists who indentified it and put it on the global data base.
She said as the genomic surveillance was done within India, it helped many other countries to identify on the global data base and then it was noted that this variant was found in many countries.
She said, one more mutation has been noticed in Delta which is called Delta Plus which is an additional mutation to the Delta variant.
Dr Swarup said that scientists would continue to track the mutations.
She also reiterated the point that it should not be forgetten that our public health intervention and covid appropriate behavior are very important aspects and they do not change even if the variants change.
National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Director Sujeet Kumar Singh has informed that as of now 48 cases of Delta Plus variant were detected across the country.
During the media briefing, Dr Singh said that these variants were found from 45 thousand samples which were sequenced.
He said, these variants were found in 10 States and UT namely Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu , Odisha, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka.
He said, Delta Plus variant signifies Delta variant with an additional mutation.
He said, plus does not signify its high potential of transmissibility or causing severe disease.
Dr Singh said , the situation is being closely monitored and the information regarding these variants are being shared with the States.
Giving further details, Dr Singh added that 8 states are important where more than 50 per cent of the variant of concern or Delta variant have been found.
These States are Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Telangana and West Bengal. He also added that the Covid variants of concern found in 174 districts.
During the briefing ICMR Director General Dr Balram Bhargava said that the two vaccines- Covishield and Covaxin work against the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta variants of SARS-CoV2.
He said, laboratory tests are ongoing to check the vaccine’s effect on the Delta Plus variant.
He also informed that Delta Plus variant is present in 12 countries and 48 cases have been identified in India but more importantly, they have been very localised and this virus has also been isolated and cultured now.
He informed that we are doing the same test that we have done for Alpha, Beta, gamma and Delta variants