Active Covid-19 cases declining, but surge in four states: Govt
Even as active cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases are declining in the country, at least four states -- Manipur, Delhi, Kerala, and West Bengal -- are reporting a surge in the viral infection, the Union health ministry said on Tuesday.
Even as active cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases are declining in the country, at least four states -- Manipur, Delhi, Kerala, and West Bengal -- are reporting a surge in the viral infection, the Union health ministry said on Tuesday.
Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, citing data from the ministry, said that in Manipur, the number of active cases has gone up to 3,500 from 2,000 cases reported earlier, while Delhi saw a jump from 26,000 to 53,000 cases. “Kerala had reported 77,000 active cases earlier, which now stands at 86,000, and West Bengal saw an increase from 26,000 to 36,000 in the past week,” said Bhushan during a press conference.
The health ministry is in constant touch with these states to ensure improved implementation of Covid-19 containment measures, he said.
“It doesn’t matter whether numbers are going up or coming down, the strategy of test, track, trace and treat has to be universally followed. This strategy will not go out of fashion, and our primary focus should be to increase and enhance this, at least till the time we achieve case positivity rate of 5% or below,” said Bhushan, also cautioning that with more festivals coming up in the next few weeks, states should avoid a surge in infections during the festive season.
According to the health ministry data, India has 541,000 active cases of Covid-19, which is about 6.8% of the total cases of the disease reported in the country. A major reason for active Covid-19 cases decreasing significantly was due to increased recoveries in the past five months, ministry officials said.
The data shows that there were about 95,000 recoveries reported in June, which has now gone up to 7.6 million. “These figures are important as these show that our health care infrastructure is not overburdened due to Covid-19 because these active cases either land up at hospitals or spend time in home isolation. Medical monitoring is needed even for those under home isolation,” said Bhushan.
When there were around a million active cases in mid-September, there was extra load on health care delivery system in the country.
Some of the major states that have reported a significant decline in active cases in the month of November, as compared to October, are Maharashtra with 119,000 active cases this month from October’s 261,000.
Karnataka has also seen great improvements too, with the 112,000 active cases reported in October declining to 44,000 in November.
Andhra Pradesh saw a drop from 56,000 to 22,000 active cases, as did Tamil Nadu that saw a decline from 46,000 to 19,000 cases. In Uttar Pradesh, there were 49,000 active cases last month that has now come down to 23,000.
