New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday clarified that there is no presence of Indian variants of Covid-19.
The ministry further reiterated that two Indian vaccines have enough efficacy to fight the foreign variants of Covid-19.
"There is no Indian variant as such. Neither there is any such Indian strain of Coronavirus," said Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary in New Delhi.
Bhushan gave the statement when asked about the presence of Indian variants of Covid-19, especially in Maharashtra.
Bhushan said that as of now 807 UK variant, 47 South African variant and 1 Brazilian variant cases have been found in India.
Echoing the same view, Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that the two Indian vaccines (COVAXIN and COVISHIELD) have the efficacy to fight the variants.
"Our vaccines can fight against UK and Brazil variant. Study is on for the South African variant," said Bhargava.
Referring to the double mutant of Covid-19, Bhargava said that this is not significant in Indian context. "The severity of double mutant has also not been ascertained in Indian context," said Bhargava.
The health ministry, however, expressed serious concern over the huge spike in cases in 8 states.
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"Situation is getting from bad to worse. And this is a matter of serious concern," said Dr VK Paul, Member, Niti Aayog.
Statistics from the health ministry said that 10 districts in India including Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur, Thane, Nasik, Aurangabad, Bengaluru Urban, Nanded, Delhi and Ahmednagar account for maximum active caseload.
"There is a sharp rise in daily new cases. Cases in Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Delhi are a matter of serious concern," said Bhushan.
He informed that Niti Aayog member Dr VK Paul and ICMR DG Dr Balram Bhargava had a meeting with officials of these 8 states on Tuesday morning and suggested strategies to contain the situation.
Health Ministry statistics further said that the positivity rate of Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra (23.44 percent) is much higher than the national average of 5.65 percent.
Positivity rate in Punjab 8.82 percent, Chhattisgarh 8.24 percent, Madhya Pradesh 7.82 percent, Tamil Nadu 2.50 percent, Karnataka 2.45 percent, Gujarat 2.22 percent and Delhi 2.04 percent.
Since February 10, average daily cases and daily deaths have also increased exponentially in these states.
On February 10, Maharashtra registered 3051 average daily cases and on March 24, 34456 cases have been registered and similarly, the average daily deaths in the state on February 10 was 32 and on March 24 it stood at 118.
From 132 on February 10, the average daily cases in Delhi has risen to 1535 on March 24. At the same time, from 2 deaths on February 10, the toll has now risen to 7 as of March 24.
Health Secretary Bhushan appealed to the states to increase RT PCR tests and identifying the positive cases and quarantine them properly.
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Health Ministry statistics said that a total of 6,11,13,354 doses have been administered in India.
A total of 3,50,91,740 people above 60 years and people aged 45-60 years got 1st dose of the vaccine and 1988 people for the second dose as of March 30.
"We appeal all the age category people to come forward and vaccinate as we know Covid appropriate behaviour and vaccination are the two medicine to fight Covid-19," said Bhushan.
The Health Secretary further appealed to the private sector hospitals to come forward and join in the vaccination process following the fact that only 16.53 percent vaccination took place in private facilities with Chandigarh being the highest with 50.30 percent and Uttarakhand with 17.25 percent.
Quoting a survey, Bhushan said that 97 percent of people have expressed their satisfaction with the overall vaccination process.
