India able to limit COVID spread but no scope of complacency, rise in cases after March this year: Sources

I NDIA has been able to limit the spread of COVID-19 compared to several other countries of the world but there can be no complacency as there are six states which are reporting more than 1,000 daily cases of COVID-19 and 181 districts in the country reported a weekly positivity of more than 10 per cent in the week that ended on 25 July, official sources said on Tuesday.

 

The sources said 107 districts reported weekly positivity between 5 per cent to 10 per cent in the week that ended on 25 July and noted that the threat of COVID-19 is not over yet.

 

Same virus floating around in the world

 

“If we do not remain aware, do not take required precaution, because it is the same virus floating around in the world, chances are that it can again come back to India. This is the challenge before us,” a source said.

 

Officials said that post-March, India has seen an increase in COVID-19 cases with the average daily cases standing at 19,627 cases in the past week and the case positivity rate at 4.53 per cent.

 

Kerala reported 2,234 average daily cases between 20 and 26 July and contributed 11.38 per cent of the total cases in the country. It was followed by Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Karnataka and Odisha.

 

All these states have reported more than 1,000 COVID-19 cases in the week that ended on 26 July.

 

Gujarat, Assam, Telangana, Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have reported between 500 to 1,000 average daily cases in the period.

 

Assam has 26 districts which reported a weekly positivity of more than 10 per cent followed by West Bengal with 16 for the week that ended on 25 July.

 

The sources said that if the trajectory of cases is increasing, “we need to be more cautious” and emphasized the strategy of “test, track, treat, vaccination and adherence of COVID appropriate behaviour”

 

They said adult vaccination was taken in a mission mode and at a scale unheard of.

 

Vaccination milestone

 

The sources said it took 202 days to reach the milestone of 50 crore doses from the launch of COVID-19 vaccination on 16 January 2021 and 77 days to reach 100 crore vaccination milestone.

 

The next 50 crore doses were administered in 79 days and India reached the milestone of 200 crore doses on 17 July after 192 days.

 

Sources said 96 per cent of the 12-plus population has been given the first dose of COVID-19, 88 per cent have received the second dose and 7.58 crore precaution doses have been administered.

 

The government has embarked on COVID Vaccine Amrit Mahotsava to provide free precaution dose at government facilities with an aim to increase the uptake of the precautionary dose by all eligible population.

 

Persons aged 18 years and above with a sufficient gap from the previous dose are eligible and the initiative, which started 15 July will continue till 30 September.

 

Sources said there has been an increase in both total doses and precaution doses administered since 15 July.

 

They said India has made substantial gains so far in COVID management with a ‘whole of government and whole of society approach’.

 

Managing any infectious disease

 

They said Prime Minister Narendra Modi facilitated ‘Jan-Andolan’ & ‘Jan-Bhagidari’ which is crucial in managing any infectious disease.

 

While 31,193 COVID-19 cases have been reported per million population in India, it is 72,091 globally. The figure is much higher in France (4,96,500) UK (3,46,304) Italy (3,48,750), Spain (2,78,074), USA (2,68,282).

 

India has reported 374 deaths per million population while globally it is 807. The number is 3,047 for the USA, 2719 for UK and 2246 for France.

 

Sources said 1.01 billion eligible beneficiaries received the first dose in India which is three times the population of the USA and 6.9 times the population of Russia.

 

They said 929.9 million eligible beneficiaries have been fully vaccinated in India which is 4.3 times the population of Brazil and 13.4 times the population of the UK.

 

They also noted that 2.5 crore vaccine doses were administered in a single day on the birthday of PM Modi, which is equivalent to the population of Australia.

 

Sources said there is a need to overcome any sense of complacency and fatigue in the fight against COVID-19. SOURCE : ANI