E-Paper
2nd Covid-19 wave not over yet, 80 districts have high positivity: ICMR
The four principal variants of concern — Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta — have been identified in 174 districts in 35 states, with Alpha variant found in 3,969 samples, Beta variant in 149, and Gamma in 1 sample. Delta and its related Kapa variant, were found in 16,238 samples.
Covid-19 cases may have reduced in most parts of the country, and the total cases may be well below the early May peak of nearly 400,000 a day, but the second national wave of infections is not over yet with at least 80 districts still showing high positivity rates, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has warned.
India recorded over 46,000 new cases on Sunday, still the highest in any country in the world, according to worldometers.info.
“The second wave of Covid-19 has still not subsided, as 80 districts in the country still have high positivity. There cannot be any laxity at this stage. The vaccines have been found effective against the alpha, beta, gamma and delta variants of Covid-19,” Dr Balram Bhargava, ICMR’s director general, said on Monday during the 29th group of ministers (GoM) meeting on Covid-19.
These 80 districts fall in the states of Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Odisha among others.
Last Friday, at a Union health ministry media briefing, Bhargava had struck a simiar note of caution.
“We have still got 75 districts that have more than 10% prevalence; there are about 92 districts that have between 5 and 10% prevalence; even though 569 districts are less than 5% so in a large part the second wave is over. However, these districts are important,” he had said.
ICMR had emphasised on the need to immediately identify hot spots, which is what India has attempted to do with the latest Delta-plus variant.
“We immediately identified the hot spots; however, whether this virus is going to be significant or not, we do not know yet but we have identified where all it has just suddenly emerged and isolated those people, and ring vaccination has been initiated in those areas. The most important is that the district level test positivity rate needs to be clearly monitored by the districts to ensure if it is going above 5% so then we need to impose strict restriction. This will help us guide through this pandemic,” Bhargava said during the briefing.
The four principal variants of concern — Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta — have been identified in 174 districts in 35 states, with Alpha variant found in 3,969 samples, Beta variant in 149, and Gamma in 1 sample. Delta and its related Kapa variant, were found in 16,238 samples.
Also speaking at the meeting on Covid-19 vaccination, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan told the GoM that India had overtaken the US in total number of Covid Vaccine doses administered so far.
“USA started vaccinating against Covid from 14 December 2020 whereas the drive was launched in India on 16th Jan 2021… Till today (Monday) morning, we have administered 32,36,63,297 vaccine doses to our countrymen in various categories,” he said.
As on June 27, the United States has administered 323.33 million vaccine doses, of which 179, 261,269 were given as first dose that is about 54.6% of the population.
“What India needs right now is effective messaging among masses so that people strictly adhere to Covid-19 appropriate behaviour, maintaining hygiene etc. which will go a long way in breaking the chain of disease transmission along with vaccination,” said Jugal Kishore, head, community medicine department, Safdarjung Hospital.
