COVID situation optimistic, but India cannot lower guard: Dr. VK Paul

Story by  ATV | Posted by  sabir hussain • 2 Years ago
Dr. VK Paul, Member-Health, Niti Aayog
Dr. VK Paul, Member-Health, Niti Aayog

 

New Delhi

The overall COVID-19 situation in the country is optimistic, however, India cannot lower its guard, Dr. VK Paul, Member-Health, Niti Aayog said on Thursday.

"Overall COVID-19 situation is very optimistic. However, some states including Kerala, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh are still reporting a large number of cases. We cannot lower our guard," Dr. Paul said at a press briefing.

Stressing on the need to remain vigilant, he said, "The world doesn't know everything about this virus. This isn't the end of the virus, it will try to emerge fitter. Vigilance must go on. The world should remain united to fight this virus and should continue to use the tools that are at our disposal," he added.

Union Health Ministry's Joint Secretary, Luv Aggarwal who also spoke at the briefing said that four states have more than 50,000 active COVID cases presently.

"Four states-- Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka -- have more than 50,000 active cases of COVID-19. 11 states have active cases between 10,000 and 50,000," he said.

Aggarwal said that 96 per cent of the Indian population above 18 years has received their first dose of the COVID vaccine, while 78 per cent have received the second dose.

As many as 1.61 crore precaution doses have also been administered, while 69 per cent of the 15-18 age group has been vaccinated with the first dose of COVID vaccine, he added.

The Joint Secretary then furnished data to reveal the slowdown in the spread of COVID infection, and said, "On January 24, the daily positivity rate was recorded at 20.75 per cent, which has now decreased to 4.44 per cent. It indicates that now the rate of infection spread has come down significantly."

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India had reported 67,084 new cases of COVID-19 and 1,241 fresh deaths in the last 24 hours. With this, the country's active caseload currently stands at 7,90,789, which accounts for 1.86 per cent of total cases.

The daily positivity rate in India has been recorded at 4.44 per cent and the weekly positivity rate at 6.58 per cent.