Sudhir Kumar / New Delhi
The Government today said that the new strain of Coronavirus found in the United Kingdom has not been seen in India so far. Briefing media in New Delhi, Member (Health) in NITI Aayog Dr VK Paul said, there is no cause for concern and no need to panic but there is a need to remain vigilant.
He said, the new strain of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom has increased transmissibility. He said, this mutation is not affecting the severity of the disease and case fatality is not affected by this mutation. He said, as of now, it has no impact on the potential of the emerging vaccines.
Talking to reporters, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that there has been a sustained decline in COVID-19 cases in India since mid-September. He said, active cases are less than 3 lakh after 163 days. He said, in many countries the cases per million is more than 50 thousand per million but in India cases per million population are 7,300 which is amongst the lowest in the world. The world’s average is 9,697.
The Secretary said, in the last 7 weeks, the average daily new cases have shown a continuous decline in the country. He said, only 24 thousand 135 new cases were registered between 16 and 22nd December against 46,301 cases registered between 4 and 10th November. Mr Bhushan said, India’s death per million population is also amongst the lowest in the world, standing at 106, while the global average is 216. He said, more than 16.3 crore tests have been conducted.