4 states, badly hit by Covid-19, show decline in infection, says govt
These states are Maharashtra, Karnataka Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said at a press conference where he shared the data from October 3 and November 4.
The Union health ministry on Tuesday said that four worst-hit states - which have recorded the highest caseload of the coronavirus disease (Covie-19) - have seen a drop in the infection rate. These states are Maharashtra, Karnataka Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said at a press conference where he shared the data from October 3 and November 4.
He said that in the same period, Kerala, Delhi, West Bengal and Manipur recorded a worrying trend of increase in the number of Covid-19 infections.
Bhushan said that the country still needs to save the gains secured in its fight against the pandemic.
Around 80 per cent of the new recovered cases are observed to be concentrated in 10 states and union territories, which include Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Delhi, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, according to health ministry’s data. Out of this, Maharashtra has single-handedly contributed more than 10,000 recoveries in the last 24 hours, followed by Karnataka with more than 8,000 recoveries.
Officials from the government’s National Task Force and NITI Aayog were also present at the press conference with Bhushan. They cautioned against the virus’ susceptibility and asked people to get tested upon showing symptoms.
“We are susceptible (to the virus) to a very large extent and the situation in America and Europe is showing (that). We don’t know the behaviour of the virus completely. So, we need to save the gains that we have earned in our fight against the pandemic till now,” said NITI Aayog member (Health) V K Paul, who also heads the National Task Force on Covid-19.
Requesting people to follow basic Covid-19 protocols, Paul added, “In these times, even the smallest of symptoms, such as cold, cough and sore throat is Covid-19 unless proven otherwise. “It might be other flu too, but if we miss even one positive case, that may result in thousands of cases.”
India’s Covid-19 tally reached 8.2 million on Tuesday after 38,310 fresh cases were reported in the last 24 hours, in addition to 490 new fatalities which pushed the death toll to 1,23,097. The number of active cases in the country remained below six lakh for the fifth consecutive day.