NEW DELHI: The Centre on Friday expressed concern over high Covid-positivity in Kerala (6.1%) and
Mizoram (8.2%) even as the rate for the country has been below 1% for the past two weeks. The overall average daily new cases in the country, however, continues to remain below 7,000. The Centre also cautioned against lowering of guard, saying the world is witnessing the fourth surge and the overall positivity rate of 6.1% globally.
“India has seen two surge so far — one in September 2020 and second in May 2021. Presently, the cases are on decline, so are the daily new deaths,” health secretary
Rajesh Bhushan
said.
“For the past four weeks, India has been reporting less than 10,000 cases every 24 hours and if we look at the average new cases in the past two weeks, it has been less than 7,000. The numbers are low. However, as I have submitted earlier we must keep up our guard and be vigilant,” he added, underlining the need for following Covid-appropriate behaviour including proper use of mask, hand hygiene and physical distancing measures.
The government also emphasised on the need for effective containment at the district level and imposition of local restrictions by states wherever required, particularly during the festive season and in the wake of increasing
Omicron cases. Bhushan pointed out that certain states reporting high positivity rate are not doing adequate RT-PCR tests. “Ideally, RT-PCR should be in the region of 60-70% of the total tests that are being conducted. However, there are certain states where this percentage is significantly lower,” he said.
In the past two weeks, 97,882 Covid-19 cases were recorded. Of this Kerala alone recorded 45,225 cases followed by
Maharashtra with 11,668 cases. Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and
Karnataka were among the other states reporting large numbers of cases. In terms of weekly positivity, 20 districts — mostly in Kerala (9) and Mizoram (8) — recorded positivity between 5-10%. Two districts in Mizoram recorded positivity above 10%.
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