PremiumUnion Health Ministry on Saturday announced that five states and UTs - Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Daman & Diu, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh have reported a major drop in case positivity, news agency ANI reported. And it also confirmed that in the last two weeks, the COVID positivity rate in India has dropped significantly.
Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health Ministry, said, "Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Daman & Diu, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh have reported a major drop in case positivity. Overall positivity rate in India, which stood at 21.9% last week has now fallen to 19.8%. Our containment efforts are working."
Premium Premium "11 states have over 1 lakh active cases, 8 states have 50,000 to 1 lakh active cases, and 17 have less than 50,000 cases. Maharashtra, UP, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh where high number of cases are being reported are also reporting decline in active cases," he added.
And further said, the cause of concern is Tamil Nadu where a rise in number of active cases has been reported in last one week.
Union Health Ministry on Saturday also said that ten states account for 85 per cent of the total novel coronavirus cases in the country. Twenty-four states have a COVID-19 positivity rate of more than 15 per cent.
India in a day recorded 3,26,098 COVID-19 cases that took the tally to 2,43,72,907, while 3,890 new fatalities pushed the death toll to 2,66,207, according to Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday.
The active cases have reduced to 36,73,802 and comprise 15.07 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 83.83 per cent, it stated.
PM Modi says localised containment strategies need of hour
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called for augmenting healthcare resources in rural areas to focus on door to door testing and surveillance, and asserted that localised containment strategies are the need of the hour, especially in states with high positivity rate in districts.
Chairing a high-level meeting, Modi said states should be encouraged to report their COVID-19 numbers transparently "without any pressure of high numbers showing adversely on their efforts", remarks that come amid reports that many states have been under-reporting their case and fatality tallies.
Modi also directed that a distribution plan for ensuring oxygen supply in rural areas should be worked out, including through provision of oxygen concentrators, a statement from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said.
He said necessary training should be provided to health workers in the operation of such equipment, and power supply should be ensured for smooth operation of such medical devices, it said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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