India's daily Covid-19 cases now at 10% of second wave peak: Government

NEW DELHI: India's daily Covid-19 cases are now at 10 per cent of the daily cases that were being recorded at the peak of the second wave in May, which is a decline of almost 90 per cent, said the government on Tuesday.
Addressing a joint press briefing, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, "We are now reporting almost 90 per cent decline in India's daily Covid-19 cases as compared to the highest peak reported on May 7," he said.
India had recorded 4.14 lakh cases on May 7, the highest single-day rise of Covid-19 cases in the country since the beginning of the pandemic. A month later, the daily case count came under one lakh and as of Tuesday morning, India had reported 42, 640 cases in the last 24 hours.

Between June 15 and June 21, there were 553 districts in the country where the positivity rate was less than 5 per cent, said Bhushan.
Delta plus in 9 countries; Delta variant in 80
The highly infectious Delta variant (B.1.617.2) of Covid-19 which was first surfaced in India is now found in 80 countries, said Bhushan. While the Delta variant is considered a 'variant of concern' (VoC), one of its mutation Delta Plus (AY.1) is considered a 'variant of interest' (VoI).
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Delta Plus found in nine countries, namely, the United States, United Kingdom, Portugal, Switzerland, Japan, Poland, Nepal, China and Russia. India has 22 cases of Delta Plus variant, said the health ministry official.
Bhushan said that both Covishield and Covaxin are effective against the Delta variant. "But to what extent and what is the proportion of antibody that they produce, that we would share with you shortly," he said.

Several countries interested in CoWin platform
Union health secretary Bhushan said that in spite of criticism at times, the CoWIN platform has mostly received praises.
"It has established itself as a very robust, all-inclusive, simple IT-based platform. Therefore, a large number of countries are interested in taking the technology & using it," said the top ministry official.

Bhushan said that India is organising a webinar for the countries that are interested in India's CoWin platform. He added that India would be happy to share the technology.
"The National Health Authority, Union health ministry and the ministry of external affairs (MEA) are planning a global webinar in which such potentially interested countries would be invited and we would be more than willing to share the technology and solution with them," he said.
India records vaccine milestone
Bhushan said that India achieved a historic milestone of 88.09 lakh doses administered in a single day on June 21. However, the gender disparity continues in the nationwide vaccination drive.
Madhya Pradesh administered the highest number of doses over 17 lakh. Among the top ten states, over 11 lakh doses were administered in Karnataka, over 7 lakh in Uttar Pradesh, 5.75 lakh in Bihar, 5.15 lakh in Haryana and Gujarat, 4.60 lakh in Rajasthan, 3.97 lakh in Tamil Nadu, 3.85 lakh in Maharashtra and 3.68 lakh in Assam.

When asked how did India manage to achieve the highest single-day jump in vaccinations, Bhushan said that the milestone was not sudden but a result of "coordinated planning".
"Between June 1 and 21, the average daily vaccination was 34,62,841. So, a jump to 88 lakh is possible. We have now demonstrated that if there is enough vaccination and information available, we can administer vaccines to a large number of people," said Bhushan.
Vaccination increases in rural areas; gender disparity continues
"46 per cent of the people who received the vaccine yesterday were women and 53 per cent were men. We have to work on this imbalance, create awareness among women and bring them forward," said Dr VK Paul, member-health, Niti Aayog.

Paul said that rural coverage of vaccines has been remarkably emphasized. Of the total vaccines administered on Monday, 63.7 per cent were in villages and 36 per cent in urban areas.
"More than half of the doses administered over the last few weeks were inoculated in rural areas, which makes it clear that rural outreach is possible. We are fully hopeful and confident that it is completely possible for us to cover rural areas," said the Niti Aayog member.
(With inputs from vacancies)