New Delhi: Amid a festive spike of Covid19 cases in four states and UTs, India on Tuesday registered a recovery rate of 92 percent with 76 lakh people being recovered from the infection.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhusan said that India's active Covid19 cases have fallen below 5.5 lakh of the total active cases. "The new infections reported in a day have fallen below 40,000 as India registered a daily rise of 38,310 new cases on Tuesday," said Bhushan.
He said that India ultimately can achieve a recovery rate of 98 to 98.5 per cent when Covid will be totally under control.
At a time when Health Ministry has expressed concern over a spike in Covid cases in Delhi, Kerala, West Bengal and Manipur and attributing it to the ongoing festive season, the ministry also expressed concern over the spike in cases in Gurugram and Faridabad.
These two national capital region (NCR) districts adjacent to Delhi attributes 43 per cent of the new infections being reported from the NCR.
"This is a matter of serious concern. As we know the urban areas are presently prone to the infections, the rising cases in some districts in NCR is a matter of concern," said VK Paul, member, Niti Aayog while addressing a press conference.
He said that overall Covid19 situation in India is improving but in some states, It's going in opposite directions.
"A recent sero survey done in Haryana said that o my 15 to 16 per cent people have been infected where the remaining portion of the population is still susceptible to the infection," said Paul.
Officials in the Health Ministry told ETV Bharat that apart from the current festive season, gathering and laxity in maintaining Covid behaviour are other major reasons for the spike of cases in NCR districts.
The official on condition of anonymity said that increasing mobility including metro rail service, interstate transport services could also be the reason for the spike in cases. "As many of the people till date are asymptomatic and by the time they were found positive, the infections get spread to other people," officials said.
As metro rail resumes services after months of suspension, ETV Bharat while quoting health experts had earlier reported that there could be a spike in Covid cases as people will get the accessibility to move around.
Interestingly, Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla on Monday during a review meeting asked the metro authorities to enforce proper Covid protocol for metro passengers.
When asked on the availability of hospitals beds for Covid patients, Bhushan said that there are enough hospital beds in India at present. "Hospitals in Delhi too has enough number of hospital beds including 80 in RML, 1200 in AIIMS and 140 in Safdarjang hospital," said Bhushan.
Bhushan said that health ministry is already in discussion with all states and UTs regarding the distribution of vaccines.
"We have 28,000 cold chains point across India, 700 and more refrigerated vans and 70,000 vaccinators for the immunisation process. We are also in discussion with the corporates in this process," said Bhushan.
ICMR DG Dr Balram Bhargava said that wearing proper masks can protect people from being infected. "Until and unless we are getting vaccines, we need to use Covid protocol including wearing masks properly," said Dr Bhargava.
He said that people should wear masks while walking and doing exercise. "Masks is as good as the vaccine. People should wear masks while walking and doing exercise," said Dr Bhargava.
He said that many vaccines are showing hopes and many are getting failed. "Until and unless we are getting a vaccine, we need to maintain proper Covid protocol," said Dr Bhargava.
Health Ministry statistics said that India till date has conducted more than 11 crore Covid tests. The country has witnessed a cumulative positivity rate of 7.4 per cent and weekly positivity rate of 4.4 per cent.
With 5,991 India's Covid cases per million population is amongst the lowest in the world. India's Covid fatality rate is also amongst the lowest in the world.
Meanwhile, the integrated government online training (iGOT) platform and digital Covid trainings initiatives of the health ministry have achieved significant milestones with 13,60,676 registered users, 19,22,489 course completion and 15,05,435 certificates were issued.
"We launched the online initiatives for health care workers, doctors and all Covid warriors to assist them in their fight against the pandemic," said Health Secretary Bhushan.
He said that till October 28, more than 29.29 lakh unit of courses have been enrolled into by 13.60 lakh unique users from 729 districts, of which, 19.13 lakh unit courses have been completed.
"Top 50 districts with highest course completion are from Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Maharastra, Kerala, West Bengal and Chandigarh," said Bhushan.
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