The Government on Tuesday said that Covid-19 cases and deaths are declining in India which is “a very reassuring trend”, but cautioned the citizens not to let their guard down as an overwhelming proportion of the country’s population is still “very very susceptible” to the virus and the situation may escalate unexpectedly.
“While there is a continuous increasing trend in Covid-19 cases and deaths globally, particularly in America and Europe and the situation in the world is becoming worrisome, in contrast the scene in India is satisfying as the cases and deaths are declining,” Dr V K Paul, member (health) at NITI Aayog, said at a presser here.
More than 94 lakh patients have recovered from Covid-19 in the country, while presently there are only about 3.4 lakhs active cases and it is declining further.
“Mortality is declining and it is well below 400 per day. Cases have come down to almost 22,000. This is the kind of number we all experienced in July. So that is very reassuring. As a nation, we seem to be now doing very well.
“We are saving lives. But remember, this cannot be taken for granted. An overwhelming proportion of our population is still very very susceptible to the virus. And the situation can escalate unexpectedly,” Paul said while cautioning against any laxity.
He further said the reassuring thing is that people are saying the R0 has come below one which means the pandemic is shrinking. “So we should be happy about that but cautiously happy,” he said as he added that “looking at the present global scenario, a second or third peak may occur in India, though it is impossible to do a definite prediction.”
Dr Paul specially mentioned that Uttarakhand, Nagaland and Himachal Pradesh have a high proportion of cases that needs to be controlled.
Noting that Delhi has made progress, he said, “We congratulate the Delhi Government as also all the other governments who have done so well in contributing towards such a significant control (in cases) in recent times.”
Dr Paul, however, expressed concern over the Covid-19 situation in some states like Uttarakhand, Nagaland and Himachal Pradesh and stated all efforts to control the spread are being made in collaboration with these governments.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that more than 15.55 crore tests have been conducted so far for detection of coronavirus infection in the country, and the cumulative positivity rate has declined to 6.37 while the average daily positivity rate during last week was 3.00 per cent.
India’s Case Fatality Rate (CFR) is also among the lowest in the world. At present, India’s CFR is 1.45 per cent, whereas globally it is 2.26 per cent, Bhushan said.