On 24 March, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare hosted a press conference to address the rising cases, second wave and new variants of COVID in India.
In the last 24 hours, 47,262 people tested positive for Covid-19 taking the total toll in India 1,17,34,058, said the Union health ministry. This makes it the biggest jump in daily cases in over 130 days.
The death rate has also seen a jump as 275 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours, as compared to 199 on Tuesday. This makes our total death toll 1,60,441.
Rising Cases
“Punjab is a big concern for us . In the last 24 hours, 2,000 new cases were reported which is the second highest number of new cases in the country after Maharashtra.”Minister of Health and Family Welfare
Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan added, "Maharashtra reported more than 28,000 cases in the last 24 hours and Punjab is reporting huge number of cases in proportion to its population."
The government added that Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are also of concern as Gujarat is reporting around 1,700 cases daily and Madhya Pradesh around 1500 cases.
The top 10 districts with maximum active cases are Pune, Nagpur, Mumbai, Thane, Nashik, Aurangabad, Bengaluru Urban, Nanded, Jalgaon and Akola.
Nine of these are from Maharashtra and one from Karnataka.
In the light of these rising cases, the Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) issued guidelines for states and union territories to enhance the proportion of RT-PCR tests, enforce the 'test-track-treat' protocol and increase vaccinations.
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Variants in India
Earlier today, the health ministry announced that “Genome sequencing by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG) has shown variants of concern (VOCs) and a novel variant in India.” They added that India has detected a new "double mutant variant" of the novel coronavirus.
“5-6 per cent of mutation is normal. But when it impacts public health or results in increased transmission is when it is concerning.”Minister of Health and Family Welfare
Currently, Maharashtra is the worst-hit but the ministry clarified that so far it was not known if the new variant was responsible for the surge in numbers here or across India.
The Ministry also said that the total number of cases with the UK, South Africa and Brazil variants of SARS-CoV-2 in the country has reached 795.
The ministry reiterated the COVID credo of “test, test, test.”
Vaccination Status
“14 states and UTs have administered second dosage of vaccine to 85% of healthcare workers. Yet in many states such as Telangana, Chandigarh, Punjab and Nagaland, the administration has not been satisfactory. This is serious as the cases are on a rise in these states.”Minister of Health and Family Welfare
The reiterated that citizens aged above 45 years would be eligible for vaccination from 1 April and conditions of co-morbidities have been removed from the criteria.
“The scientific recommended interval period between doses of Covishield is 6-8 weeks, even though NTAGI and NEGVAC recommended an interval of 4-8 weeks,” said the health ministry.
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