24 states recording a steady decline in active cases: Centre
A steady decline in new Covid-19 cases has been recorded in India for the last 20 days, with 24 states witnessing a dip in active cases since the last week, the Union health ministry said on Thursday.
It also noted that the country is on a downswing of the second wave of Covid-19. “We are on a downswing of the second wave of Covid-19 and believe that it will be sustained even when restrictions are significantly relaxed,” the ministry said.
“A steady decline in new Covid-19 cases has been recorded in India for the last 20 days. Twenty-four states have also reported decline in active Covid-19 cases since the last week,” it said.
The ministry also said that while Covid-19 testing has increased manifold, a steady decline in weekly Covid-19 positivity rate has been seen since the last three weeks. On possible adverse effects of taking the second dose of a different Covid vaccine, it said, “If second dose of a different Covid vaccine is taken, any significant adverse effect is unlikely, but we need more scrutiny and understanding in this regard.”
The Centre also termed a recent report by the New York Times (NYT) on the estimated
Covid-19 death toll in India as “completely baseless and false”.
“The NYT report is not backed by any evidence and based on distorted estimates,” it added. Amid vaccine shortage reports from several states, the Union Health Ministry said that more than 1.84 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses are still available with states and UTS and they will receive over 11 lakh doses within the next three days.
The Centre has so far provided, both through the free of cost category and through direct state procurement category, more than 22 crore vaccine doses (22,16,11,940) to states and UTS.
Of this, the total consumption, including wastages is 20,17,59,768 doses, the ministry said. The Centre has also been facilitating direct procurement of vaccines by states and UTS. Implementation of the Liberalized and Accelerated Phase-3 Strategy of Covid-19 Vaccination has started from May 1.
Under the strategy, every month 50 per cent of the total Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) cleared vaccine doses of any manufacturer would be procured by the Centre. It would continue to make these doses available to state governments free of cost as was being done earlier, the ministry said. NEW DELHI: