Positivity Rate Declining but Second wave is Still On: Govt
NEW DELHI, Sept 2: The central government said on Thursday there was an overall declining trend in weekly positivity of the coronavirus disease across India since the week ending May 10 but the second wave of the pandemic was yet to come to an end.
Speaking at a press briefing on the prevailing Covid-19 situation, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said 39 districts reported over 10 per cent weekly positivity in the week ending August 31 and between 5-10 per cent in 38 districts.
Urging caution, experts have warned of another surge in cases in the coming days and the likely arrival of the third wave around October and November.
India registered 47,092 new cases in the last 24 hours on Thursday which was 12 per cent higher than Wednesday’s tally at 41,965.
Bhushan said from 279 districts that were reporting 100 cases on a daily basis in June this year, the number has come down to 42 districts, as on August 30. “Kerala is one state that has more than 1 lakh active cases. Four states have 10,000 to 1 lakh active cases — Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Rest of the states/Union territories have less than 10,000 active cases,” Bhushan said.
The health secretary said about 300 cases of Delta plus variant of SARS-CoV-2 had so far been detected in India. He said 16 per cent of the total adult population of India has been fully vaccinated, while 54 per cent of the adult population has received at least one dose against the vaccine.
Besides Himachal, Sikkim and Dadra & Nagar Haveli have administered the first dose of the vaccine against the virus to cent per cent of the eligible adults.
“We administered 18.38 crore doses in August alone. The average dose per day administered during the month is 59.29 lakh. In the last week of the month, we administered more than 80 lakh doses per day,” the senior government official said.
With Thursday’s new cases, the total tally of cases rose to 3,28,57,937, while active cases have increased to 3,89,583.
The death toll has climbed to 4,39,529 with 509 more fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.
Bhushan said mass gatherings should be discouraged but if attending it is essential then full vaccination should be a prerequisite and urged people to get the jabs and follow Covid-appropriate behaviour, especially during the festive season.
(Manas Dasgupta)
