Overall Covid-19 cases may have been showing a declining trend, but there are 22 districts— 7 from Kerala, 5 from Manipur, 3 in Meghalaya among others in the country where an increasing trend in cases has been reported in the last 4 weeks. It is a cause of concern, the Union Health Ministry said as it warned the public that the second Covid wave is still not over.
“There has been a consistent decline in the weekly average in the COVID cases...But if we compare the rate of decline in cases, from earlier to now, its decrease remains the area of concern. We’re in talks with states in this regard,” Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health Ministry , said at a press conference here.
He said, “There are still 62 districts in the country where over 100 cases are reported every day. These cases are found in a localised and limited set of areas of these districts.”
The rate of decline of cases has however slowed down which is a matter of concern, cautioned the official.
Echoing similar views, Niti Aayog member Dr V K Paul pointed out that vaccination is not a full guarantee and one should not take Covid for granted. “No vaccine provides 100% guarantee against reinfection. All however reduce the risk of hospitalisation drastically,” he said.
In this connection he cited resurgence of Covid cases worldwide, pointing out that “it is a matter of concern and the pandemic is not over yet.”
“If we look from a global perspective, the pandemic is far from over. There’s a noticeable increase in the number of cases across the world, which remains the area of concern. We’ve to work on containing the spread of the virus with strictness,” the official said.
At 29,689, India has reported less than 30,000 new Covid-19 cases after 132 days, according to the government.
The number of active cases in the country also fell below 4,00,000 after 124 days, it said. Fresh cases pushed India’s overall Covid-19 tally to 3,14,40,951, while the death toll climbed to 4,21,382 with 415 daily fatalities, the health ministry said.
The active cases have declined to 3,98,100 and now comprise 1.27 per cent of the total infections.