Less than 200k new cases logged for 7 days in a row
94 among 107 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2020, which placed the country is in the “serious” hunger category.
Experts say the Centre’s advisory does not clarify whether the requirements of Aadhaar and address proof can be completely waived to access food aid.
“Therefore, there should be immediate universalisation of the public distribution system (PDS) and additional distribution of 5 kg foodgrains per person and 1.5 kg pulses and 800 gm cooking oil under the PDS with its expansion,” said Dipa Sinha, a food-security expert who teaches in Ambedkar University, New Delhi.
The PMGKAY should be continued for at least six months, Sinha said.
A recent survey by the Centre of Sustainable Employment at the Azim Premji University however showed only 27% of the eligible households reported receiving the full benefits under the larger Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana announced to cushion Covid distress.
India has reported less than 200,000 daily new cases of the Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) for 7 consecutive days, shows Union health ministry data.
On Wednesday, India reported 134,026 new cases, and the number of new deaths also fell below 3,000 (2,887) after several weeks.
The country has been witnessing a continuous fall in the active caseload, with 1,793,645 active cases reported on Wednesday; and with a net decline of 101,875 cases, making the active cases now only 6.34% of the country’s total positive cases.
“The infection is stabilising and many of the districts that earlier were reporting heavy case load are now showing tremendous improvement in the daily numbers. It is an encouraging trend,” said a senior government official, on condition of anonymity.
India’s daily recoveries continue to outnumber the daily new cases for the 21st consecutive day, with 231,456 recoveries registered on Wednesday.
According to the Union health ministry data, out of the total number of persons infected with Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, 26,179,085 people have recovered from the viral disease. This constitutes an overall recovery rate of 92.48%, which is showing an increasing trend.
The number of tests conducted to detect Covid-19 has also sped up over the past couple of months, also contributing to the decrease in test positivity.
A total of at least 2 million (2,019,773) tests were conducted on Wednesday in the country and cumulatively, India has conducted 350,057,330 Covid-19 tests so far.