‘We Haven’t Controlled 2nd Wave Yet’

People in India are getting back to normalcy, organizing mass public rallies, gyms, parties, and get-togethers. But the Union Health Ministry said today that we are far from a normal situation and the pandemic isn’t over yet. India’s several states and districts still record a high positivity rate despite the mega vaccination drive.

Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary with the Health Ministry states that the challenge of COVID has not ended yet. He further said that we haven’t controlled the second wave of COVID and need to make continuous efforts. He warned that the next few months will be crucial for India and to it, adds the upcoming festival season.

“We need to be watchful of the months of October, November & December. We need to be alert. Avoid crowded places and unnecessary travel…explore online shopping. Stay at home and celebrate festivals virtually,” Agarwal said. There are 28 districts in India which have a case positivity rate between 5% and 10%.

“That is a high infection rate. There are 34 districts that are reporting a weekly positivity rate of over 10%. The overall positivity rate of the country was nearly at 1.68% last week as compared to that of 5.86% earlier,” he said. He minded people that India still records more than 20,000 coronavirus cases every day and 56% were from Kerala last week.

“There are 5 states – Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram and Karnataka – which have over 10,000 active Covid-19 cases,” Agarwal said. He further clarified that currently there are “no new variants of concern” in India.