10% positivity rate in 35 dists, 10-5% in 30 dists raise concerns
Amid the fear of the onset of a third wave, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday chaired a high-level meeting to review the Covid-19 related situation and the vaccination drive in the country.
Modi was briefed by officials about the current vaccination, procurement and distribution of vaccines in comming months and targets of vaccination. He also monitored the situation in the Covid cases in Kerala and other States and aspects of international certification status of Indian vaccines.
The meeting comes a day after Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said India is still going through the second wave of Covid-19 and it is not over yet. He had said 35 districts are still reporting a weekly Covid positivity rate of over 10 per cent, while it is between five and 10 per cent in 30 districts. More than half of India’s adult population has received at least one dose of anti-coronavirus vaccine while 18 per cent have got both the shots, the Union Government had said on Thursday as the total number of jabs administered in the country crossed 72 crore.
“India’s cumulative Covid-19 vaccination coverage exceeds 72.37 crore, recovery rate currently at 97.49 per cent. 34,973 new cases have been reported in the last 24 hours. India’s active caseload (3,90,646) is 1.18 per cent of total cases. Weekly positivity rate (2.31%) has been less than 3% for last 77 days,” said Union Health Ministry in statement.
“More than 71.94 crore vaccine doses have been provided to States/UTs so far through Govt of India (free of cost channel) and through direct State procurement category. Further, more than7 lakh doses are in the pipeline. More than 5.72 crore balance and unutilised Covid vaccine doses are still available with the States/UTs to be administered,” said Ministry.