13 states showing plateau in daily cases

Addressing a news briefing, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said 13 states, including Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Punjab, are showing early signs of plateauing, while states like Bihar, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and West Bengal are showing an increasing trend in daily cases.

New Delhi:According to Union Ministry, as many as 13 states and Union Territories (UT) have been showing early signs of plateauing in daily new Covid19 cases.

The union health ministry of Monday said that States like Chhattisgarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Delhi, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Ladakh, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra, Punjab, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand are showing early sign of plateauing in daily cases.

"Although it's an early trend it's a positive development. We have to seriously follow the trend so that the number of cases remain decreased," said Luv Aggrawal, joint secretary in the health ministry in New Delhi.

Health Ministry statistics show that on May 1, India registered 4,01,993 daily new cases, which come down to 392,488 on May 2 and 368,147 on May 3.

Similarly, the death cases have also witnessed a decreasing trend with 3,523 deaths on May 1, 3,689 on May 2 and 3,417 on May 3.

In the last seven days, the growth rate of daily new cases is 0.6 percent.

Read:India receives oxygen production plant from Italy

At the same time, several states and UTs like Andaman and Nicobar Island, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Goa, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and West Bengal have been showing an increasing trend in daily cases.

"Significantly, several districts across India have been showing a decline in active cases since last 15 days," Aggrawal said while addressing a press conference.

He said that 17 states have less than 50,000 active cases, 7 states have active cases between 50,000-1 lakh and 12 states have more than 1 lakh active cases.

As many as 5 states have less than 5 percent positivity, 9 states have a positivity rate between 5-15 per cent and 22 states have more than 15 percent positivity rate.

He added that increased active cases still remain a challenge in comparison to daily new recoveries.

Referring to the ongoing vaccination drive, Aggrawal said that 15.72 crore doses have been administered to people (including 1st and 2nd dose).

Read:2021 election results: A vote for survival, existence and protection

"12 states have taken part in phase 3 vaccination drive started from May 1 where people above 18 years of age are allowed to get the vaccination...We are expecting that more States will start the process in the coming days," said Aggrawal.

He informed that all the vaccine manufacturers have been asked to increase their production.

Aggrawal said that Rs 1732 crore has already been released to Serum Institute of India (SII) for 10 crore COVISHIELD doses out of which 8.7 crore have already been received for the month of May-June-July.

Similarly, Rs 787 crore has been released to Bharat Biotech for 5 crore doses of COVAXIN for the month of May-June-July.

Aggrawal said that hospitals and Covid care facilities should judiciously use oxygen.

"With judicious use of oxygen, we can stop hoardings and black marketing is oxygen cylinders," said Aggrawal.

Meanwhile, AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria issued the following reports that many people are doing CT scan even at the initial stage of being infected with Covid19.

"There is no use of getting a CT scan if you have mild Covid. One CT scan is equal to 300-400 chest X-rays. If young people get CT scan done, it increases their risk of getting cancer," warns Dr Guleria.

Read:Puducherry: Armed with 6 seats, BJP eyes post of CM

The AIIMS director informed that after getting recovered from Covid 19 infection, people can get the COVID 19 vaccine after 14 days.

Joint secretary Luv Aggrawal, on the other hand, said that industrial units which produce gaseous oxygen of requisite purity closer to cities are being identified and temporary Covid care centres with oxygenated beds proposed to be established near that source.

"A pilot for 5 such facilities has already been initiated. 10,000 oxygenated beds can be made available through this initiative. State Government are being encouraged to set up more such facilities," said Aggrawal.

He said that the government is also exploring the feasibility of converting existing nitrogen plants to produce oxygen.

As many as 14 such industries have been identified for converting their PSA nitrogen plants to produce oxygen.

Piyush Goyal, an additional secretary in Union Home Ministry said that the government is making all possible efforts to make oxygen available for the needy.

"We have taken several steps to make oxygen available with an initiative of producing more and more oxygen and even by importing the same," said Goyal.

He informed that virtual groups have been set up in the Home Ministry comprising senior officials from the MHA and state government to keep a tab on the movement of oxygen cylinders.

"Apart from different virtual groups, we have set up a 24×7 virtual monitoring control room in this connection," added Goyal.