New Delhi: Days ahead of the resumption of Delhi metro services, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday expressed concern over the increasing number of active COVID-19 cases and fatalities in the national capital.
"When we have to protect lives, we need to look after livelihood also. However, we have to look into India's entire population to compare with spike in Delhi cases," said Rajesh Bhusan, secretary in the Health Ministry when asked the reason behind reopening of metro and other activities in the national capital amid such a spike in infections.
He said that following instructions of the Home Ministry, health ministry has again engaged itself in managing Covid infection in Delhi.
"In fact we had several round of talks with the Delhi government. Discussion also held at the Lt Governor level," said Bhushan.
Before going for a graded opening of several activities including metro rail, we have ensured that there are adequate testing facilities, clinical protocol in place, said Bhushan.
Statistics revealed that Delhi has 16,502 active cases with an increase of 632 in last 24 hours. The national capital already registered 4,481 deaths due to the Covid-19 pandemic with an additional 19 deaths on Wednesday.
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Dr Balram Bhargava, director general of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that there is around 20 to 30 per cent prevalence of Covid infection among the people in Delhi. "We have carried a third sero survey in Delhi, Mumbai and a few major cities and we have found the prevalence of 20 to 30 per cent infection amongst its citizens," said Bhargava.
He informed that ICMR will also declare the result of the second nation wide sero survey.
However, Bhushan while addressing a media briefing has also said that five states across India including Maharashtra (25 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (13 per cent), Karnataka (12 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (7 per cent), Tamil Nadu (6 per cent) account 62 per cent of the total active cases (815538) in the country.
However, average daily active case trajectory in these five states has been witnessing a decline.
Similarly, the five states of Maharastra (37 per cent), Tamil Nadu (11 per cent), Karnataka (9 per cent), Delhi (7 per cent) and Andhra Pradesh (6 per cent) account for 70 per cent of the total death cases (67376) in the country.
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"Although average daily case fatality trajectory in Karnataka and Delhi has been increasing, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are witnessing a decreasing trend," said Bhushan.
He said that India has been witnessing one of the lowest cases (2,792) and deaths (49) per million population in comparison to world average of 3,359 and 111.
India has so far conducted 4.5 crore tests with more than 11 lakh tests being conducted in last 24 hours. Number of recovered patients have crossed 29 lakh with highest single day recovery of 68584 patients.
"India's testing has increased from 10,000 on April 8 to 4.5 crore on September 3," said Bhushan.
Referring to the positivity of Covid infection among health care workers, Bhushan said that Telangana is leading in the list of states with high positivity rate of 18 per cent among health care workers.
Covid positivity rate among health care workers in Maharashtra is 16 per cent, Delhi 14 per cent, Karnataka 13 per cent, Puduchery 12 per cent, and Punjab 11 per cent.
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"Such positivity rate among health care workers is a concern for us and that is why we have asked all healthcare workers to follow Covid infection protocol. In fact, we have also launched buddy system for healthcare workers where one can help another while wearing PPEs," said Bhushan.
Bhushan said that national expert committee on vaccine has already met three times and is exploring possibilities to engage five domestic vaccine producers as well as international players.
"We are looking into finance and other mechanisms for vaccine production and distribution," said Bhushan.
On testing, Bhushan said that there are many states which are not making full utilisation of RT PCR tests. "There are some places where authorities are going with antigen tests in absence of RT PCR. But some state are also not using RT PCR to its potential. So we have communicated it to them," said Bhushan.
Referring to the presence of immunity and anti body in a cured person to fight Covid, ICMR DG Dr Bhargava said that it's a new disease and we don't know how long the anti-body persists. "For example the influenza vaccine is given every year... so we are examining it. However, study suggests the anti body persists for 5-6 months or even a year," said Dr Bhargava.
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