Centre warns nation against Covid norm violations

NEW DELHI: Continued gross violations of Covid-19 appropriate behaviour can nullify the gains made against the pandemic so far, the health ministry warned on Tuesday, even as it maintained  that there has been a consistent decline in coronavirus cases in the last few weeks. 

At the health ministry’s briefing on Tuesday,  Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the health ministry, expressed concern over violations of protocol and said people have been talking about a third wave like it was a “weather update”. He added that many were failing to understand that adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour, or the lack of it, is what will prevent or cause any future waves.

The health ministry’s remark comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi voiced concern about people thronging tourists spots without masks. In a virtual meeting with administrators of states and Union Territories, the PM had said: “There’s a need to stay alert and act fast to check further spread of virus.”
At the briefing on Tuesday, NITI Aayog Member (Health) Dr VK Paul said globally, a third wave of Covid-19 is being seen and called on people to make efforts to ensure that it does not happen.

Agarwal said approximately 73.4 per cent of the new Covid cases reported so far in July are from Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. He said 55 districts reported a case positivity rate of more than 10 per cent in the week ending July 13.

Central teams have been deputed to Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Meghalaya, Odisha, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura to support them in Covid-19 management. India’s Covid death toll climbed to 4,10,784 on Tuesday, with 2,020 new deaths recorded after Madhya Pradesh reconciled its fatality data. The  infection tally rose to 3,09,05,819, according to the health ministry.