There’s a major fall in weekly new Coronavirus cases, in fact dropping below 40,000 on Tuesday. But as there is an increase in infections in States like Manipur, Delhi, Maharashtra and Kerala, the Centre advised people to go for testing even if they note the slightest of Covid-19 symptoms.
“There are few States where active cases are on a rise in November as compared to October. Manipur has now 3,500 cases from previous 2,000. Cases in Delhi have increased to 33,000 from 26,000. In Kerala, cases have increased to 86,000 from 77,000,” Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary said on Tuesday.
However, during the same period, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh were the top states which registered a decline in the number of Covid-19 cases.
“We’ve observed a declining trend for weekly new cases over last 7 weeks. There’s major fall in weekly new cases. Health care systems are not unnecessarily burdened with Covid-19 cases. There’s less pressure on network of hospitals,” Bhushan said at a press briefing here.
He further said that the Covid-19 recovery rate is near 92 per cent and cumulative positive rate is 7.4 per cent. “Cases per million population are at 5,991. Covid-19 deaths are at 89 deaths/million population which is lower if compared globally. Active cases are around 5,41,000 now,” he said.
The Ministry also advised people to continue following Covid-19 guidelines during the festival season so that there is no surge in cases. “It is important to follow the strategy of Test - Track - Trace - Treat. Let us keep our focus on this strategy even if our numbers are coming down,” Bhushan added.
India’s COVID-19 caseload mounted to 82,67,623 with 38,310 fresh infections, while the death toll reached 1,23,097 after 490 new fatalities were reported, the data updated at 8 am showed.
A total of 76,03,121 people have recuperated from the infection so far, pushing the national recovery rate to 91.96 per cent, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.49 per cent.
“More than 11 crore COVID-19 tests have been conducted so far. The cumulative, weekly and daily positivity rate is constantly declining and stands at 7.4 per cent, 4.4 per cent and 3.7 per cent respectively,” the health secretary said.
V K Paul, head of the National Task Force on COVID-19, urged people to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour and asked them to get themselves tested if they observe any symptom of the viral disease.
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,” Paul said.
“I request you to kindly get yourself tested if you have any symptoms of Covid-19. We have facilities to carry lakhs of tests. People who you came in contact in the past 8-10 days they must self-quarantine themselves and not expose others,” he said.