Covid-19: India crosses 50,000 mark, 6 states contribute to 80.63% of cases
Government data shows that of the total 739 districts in India, the maximum cases are coming from around 66 districts
Single-day covid infections breached the 50,000 mark on Thursday amid plans to target containment and vaccination efforts in the most affected districts.
Six states—Maharashtra, Punjab, Kerala, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat—accounted for 80.63% of the 53,476 new cases reported in the past 24 hours.
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Government data also showed that just 66 of the country’s 739 districts accounted for the most cases.
“We have recommended the government to adopt a strategy similar to HIV-AIDS containment, wherein we focused on the high-burden districts while mitigating the problem in all parts of the country at the same time," said Dr Samiran Panda, head, epidemiology and communicable diseases, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Panda is also a member of the government’s National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC) and covid-19 task force.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this week, the South-East Asia region, including India, reported more than 298,000 new cases and more than 2,400 deaths, a 49% and a 14% increase, respectively, over the previous week.
With 240,082 cases, India contributed 80% of the new cases.
India, Indonesia and Bangladesh reported the highest number of deaths in the region. India reported 1,148 deaths, a 35% increase over the previous week.
WHO continues to denote covid-19 in India as a “cluster of cases" instead of community transmission. The government, too, maintains that the country has only clusters of the disease, which spread through super-spreader events.
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“The focus should be on the districts which have clusters and are spreading it to other areas. They should have strict restrictions and, meanwhile, all other parts of the country may continue their efforts of containment and vaccination," said Panda, adding that behavioural change is the key to controlling any epidemic, which can be done by creating awareness.
Vaccine hesitancy continues to impact the national covid-19 vaccination programme that began on 16 January, characterized by misinformation in several parts of the country, especially rural areas. India’s vaccination coverage is nearing 60 million but the uptake continues to be low so far.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week called for micro-containment zones in high-burden areas to stop the second wave of infections.
Maharashtra reported the highest daily new cases at 31,855 (59.57%), followed by Punjab (2,613) and Kerala (2,456). India’s total active caseload stood at 395,000 on Thursday, with 251 deaths reported in the last 24 hours.
With a resurgence of cases, the government on Wednesday asked states to impose local restrictions ahead of the upcoming festivals of Holi, Shab-e-Barat, Bihu, Easter and Eid-ul-Fitr.
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