Centre says vaccination reduced death rate in third wave

Amid a major concern over a rapid surge in Covid19 cases in India due to the Omicron variant, the central government on Thursday said that number of deaths is drastically low in this third surge of the pandemic due to a large scale vaccination.

New Delhi: Amid a major concern over a rapid surge in Covid19 cases in India due to the Omicron variant, the central government on Thursday said that number of deaths is drastically low in this third surge of the pandemic due to a large scale vaccination.

Health ministry statistics said that India registered 3,86,452 new cases, 3,059 deaths, and 31, 70,228 active cases in the second surge till April 30, 2021. The proportion of fully vaccinated people was 2 percent last year. "On January 20, 2022, there are 3,17,532 new cases, 380 deaths, and 19,24,051 active cases whereas the proportion of fully vaccinated people are 72 percent," said Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary while talking to the reporters during a weekly media briefing over the status of Covid19 situation in India.

As a majority of our population have been vaccinated, the death rate is very less, said Bhushan and reiterated confidence that both Covaxin and Covishield can fight against the pandemic. He, however, said that India has been witnessing a daily Covid case of 2,71,549 for the last one week with a case positivity of 15.91 percent. India's present active cases now stand at 19,24,051.

Bhushan said that Covid19 cases in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh are still a matter of concern as weekly positivity and weekly cases are very high in these States. He said that 11 States in the country including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Delhi, and others have been witnessing more than 50,000 active cases as of date. "The number of districts reporting more than 5 percent positivity has also increased from 335 to 515 week ending January 19," said Bhushan.

Talking about the Delhi scenario, Bhushan said that 99 percent adult population has common symptoms of fever, cough, irritation in the throat and usually settle down after the 5th day. "However, children between 11 to 18 years suffer from fever and other common symptoms along with upper respiratory tract infection," said Bhushan. He said that number of hospitalization among all age category have also decreased. Bhushan said that people with co-morbidities should be careful and take maximum precautions at present "as a condition of people with comorbidities become vulnerable and they need more hospitalization."

Echoing the same view, Dr VK Paul, chairman of a national task force of Covid19 said that 6.5 crore people in India are yet to get their second dose. "We appeal everyone to complete their full course of vaccination," said Dr Paul.

On a question regarding children, health secretary Bhushan said that the first and second wave does not show much difference concerning the effect of the pandemic. "0-19 years age group contributed 10 percent of the total cases in India in 2020 with a death percentage of 0.96. In the second wave, 11 percent of children were infected with a death rate of 0.70 percent," said Bhushan.

Referring to the precaution dose, Bhushan said that till January 20, as many as 35 lakh healthcare workers were due for the precaution dose out of which 22.66 lakh were vaccinated with precaution dose. "Out of 33 lakh front line workers who were supposed to get their precaution dose, 19.14 lakh got the same. Similarly, out of 48 lakh people above 60 years of age, almost 19 lakh got their precaution dose," informed Bhushan.

Talking about Genomic sequencing of Covid variants, Bhushan said that to date more than 1.64 lakh genomic sequencing has been done in India. "In the month of December a total of the 16,000 genomic sequencings has been done in India," said Bhushan.

In another development, as many as five genomic sequencing laboratories in India have been closed due to a lack of funds. However, when contacted over the development, none of the health ministry officials were available for comment. India has 38 genomic sequencing laboratories across the country. end.