Covid Situation In India ‘From Bad To Worse’

The number of Coronavirus cases is spiralling around in India all over again and the massive spike is leaving everyone worried and concern. Amid the tension, the Health Ministry in a press conference on Tuesday (March 30), said that the situation in India has gone from bad to worse.

The ministry said there is an urgent need to exponentially increase tests in the majority of states and the worse situation is a huge concern right now. “We spoke to representatives of these states and asked why are they not increasing testing when cases are increasing rapidly. We have to test more with a focus on RT-PCR tests. Rapid Antigen tests should be used for screening tests in densely populated areas,” Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said.

The ministry pointed out a few salient points on why the situation has gone from bad to worse.

• Punjab is neither conducting an adequate number of tests nor is being able to promptly isolate COVID-19 positive people.
• We have taken pride that fatality has been low. But the death rate is now at four times — at 271 from 73.
• Of the 11,064 genome samples sequenced in 10 national laboratories, the scientists have found 807 cases of the UK variant, 47 South African variant and one of the Brazilian variant so far.

The weekly national average positivity rate is 5.65%. Maharashtra has a weekly average of 23%, Punjab has a weekly average of 8.82%, Chhattisgarh 8%, Madhya Pradesh 7.82%, Tamil Nadu 2.50%, Karnataka 2.45%, Gujarat 2.2% & Delhi 2.04%.