Centre rushes teams to 6 states reporting surge in daily cases

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 2

Flagging the sudden resurgence of Covid-19 infections in Europe, UK, Russia and Israel, the government on Friday asked states to impose the highest levels of restrictions in 71 districts with a positivity rate of more than 10 per cent.

The districts are located in 16 states — Andhra Pradesh (9), Arunachal Pradesh (13), Rajasthan (10), Meghalaya (8), Manipur (7), Assam, Odisha and Tripura (4 each), Sikkim (3) Himachal Pradesh and Puducherry (2 each), Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Mizoram, Nagaland and West Bengal (1 each).

Death toll crosses 4 lakh

In a separate development, the Centre also deployed two-member central teams for Kerala, Arunachal, Tripura, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Manipur, which are witnessing a surge in daily cases over the past week.

The teams will monitor the overall implementation of Covid-19 management, especially in testing; Covid-appropriate behaviour and its enforcement; availability of hospital beds, sufficient logistics, including ambulances, ventilators and medical oxygen; and the vaccination progress.

As India’s Covid-19 toll crossed four lakh cases today to settle at 4,00,312, the government said the pandemic was still simmering and the second wave was not over.

Pregnant women eligible for jabs

The Health Ministry on Friday approved the recommendations from the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) to allow Covid vaccination of pregnant women.

“States should impose the highest levels of restrictions in areas with 10 per cent plus positivity and oxygen bed occupancy of more than 60 per cent for at least 14 days. They should also appoint a senior officer from the state headquarters as the nodal officer for these districts,” Health Ministry spokesperson Lav Agarwal said. Member, NITI Aayog, VK Paul warned that the “second wave is not over”. “We are not safe till the entire nation is safe. Lowering the guard is not an option. The situation in Europe is again getting worrisome. From 50 per million cases, the count has now doubled. The UK has gone from 100 per million cases to 370 per million cases now. Israel and Russia are also witnessing a rise in cases. The fight against the virus is not over,” Paul said, adding that the country must buy time until a vast proportion of the population was inoculated. As of today, the daily Covid cases have fallen to 46,617 from a peak of 4,14,188 on May 7. Nationally, there are now 100 districts with over 100 daily cases. The daily active cases have dropped to 5,09,537 – an 86 per cent decline from the 37 lakh peak of May 10.

The recovery rate has risen to 97 per cent and weekly Covid positivity has fallen to 3.1 per cent.

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