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54 districts reporting more than 10% positivity; Covid-19 pandemic ‘far from over’: Centre
Joint secretary of the health ministry, Lav Agarwal, said that the number of districts reporting over 100 new cases everyday has reduced since the past two months.
The Union ministry of health and family welfare on Tuesday said that the number of new infections of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) have continuously declined following its peak in early May.
However, the ministry also noted that in the past few weeks the rate of the decline has slowed down which remained an area of concern and the issue is being discussed with the states.
Joint secretary of the health ministry, Lav Agarwal, said that the number of districts reporting over 100 new cases everyday has reduced since the past two months.
While 379 districts witnessed over 100 daily infections till a month ago (May 25), the number further reduced to 121 districts as of June 25.
On that day, as many as 62 districts in India reported over 100 new cases in a 24-hour-span, data shared by the joint secretary during Tuesday’s press briefing showed. Agarwal also said that such districts are very localised and in a limited set of areas.
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During the past four weeks, 22 districts witnessed an increasing trend in the daily cases. Kerala, with seven districts — Alappuzha, Kottayam, Malappuram, Thrissur, Wayanad, Ernakulam and Pathanamthitta — contributed the maximum to the list. While Manipur added five districts, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh added three each. Maharashtra contributed two districts and Assam and Tripura added one each.
Further, another list of 54 districts were flagged by the ministry for reporting more than 10% positivity as of the week ending on July 26. Kerala and Manipur contributed the maximum to this list too, with 10 districts each.
The ministry said that the active caseload continued to decline and stood at 398,100 as of Tuesday and the cumulative recovery rate was recorded at 97.4% as of date.
On the Covid-19 vaccination front, over 440 million doses have been administered in the country so far. This includes the 18 million doses administered to healthcare workers, 28 million doses to frontline workers, 240 millions doses given to people over 45 years of age and the 140 million doses to those between 18 and 44 years.
The ministry also strongly cautioned against the rising number of cases worldwide and said that the “pandemic is far from over.” The United States, France, Japan, Italy, Malaysia and Thailand, the ministry noted, witnessed their number of infections going up.
Agarwal also warned of the impending dangers of co-infections due to the monsoon season such as Malaria and Dengue and stressed on the need for extra precautions. Covid appropriate behaviour, control of vectors such as mosquito that spreads these diseases and targeted vaccinations were among the measures suggested by the ministry.
Dr VK Paul, member of health, Niti Aayog, who was also present at the briefing, said that the second wave of infections was not over yet and some states like Kerala continued to remain a concern.
