There continues to be a plateauing in daily Covid-19 cases in 12 States in the last 14 days, Health Ministry data showed. These States are Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Jharkhand, Daman & Diu, Ladakh, Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nikobar. However, Health Ministry official Lav Agarwal said this is not the time to loosen up seeing the early decline as it may cost dearly to the country, going forward.

“In the case of infections, even a single day laxity may squander the efforts made to come to a low level of Coronavirus cases. That’s why there is a need to make continuous efforts towards containing the further spread,” said Agarwal, who is a Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry.

Tests conducted

India conducted 15,41,299 tests on Tuesday against 16.63 lakh tests on Monday. On Sunday, the total tests conducted were 15,04,698. The total number of tests done in Delhi in the last 24 hours to Wednesday stood at 79,491. On Tuesday, the number of tests stood at 74,654 against 61,045 as of Monday.

Meanwhile, the government’s vaccination drive for the 18-44 age group began on May 1 and, so far, 6,71,285 beneficiaries have received their first dose of vaccine across 12 States, including, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and UP, the government said. The total number of vaccinations administered across the country stood at 16,04,94,188, with 14,84,989 shots given in the last 24 hours to 8:00 am.

Meanwhile, there are some areas of grave concern that are showing an unrelenting increase in the number of infections over the last two weeks. These 12 States that are showing increasing trends are Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Bihar, Haryana, Odisha, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Jammu & Kashmir. Even in the north-eastern States, a rising trend has been observed, according to the government.

On the shortage of oxygen, Lav Agarwal said an inter-ministerial committee is looking at the deployment of aid received from foreign countries.

India reported record-high deaths on Wednesday due to Covid-19. The daily death toll increased to 3,780 till 8:00 am, and this is the eighth straight day when the single-day deaths crossed 3,000-mark, according to the Health Ministry data. Meanwhile, the country registered more than 3-lakh daily Covid cases for the 14th straight day at 3,82,315. Cumulatively, total infections stood at 2,06,65,148 till 8:00 am on Wednesday, of which, active cases were 34,87,229, those who recovered were 1,69,51,731, and the total deaths reported so far stood 2,26,188.

Separately, Union Minister of Chemicals & Fertilisers Sadananda Gowda reviewed the availability of drugs for covid treatment and other essential drugs. According to an official statement the Minister was informed that preliminary findings suggest that there is adequate availability of medicines in the market and the Department of Pharma, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority and Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation will continue to closely monitor their availability.

Regarding black marketing and hoarding, he was informed that State Drug Controllers have been instructed to make teams at State level for field inspections. Strict Action is being taken against hoarding and black-marketing of drugs. A number of preventive and enforcement actions have been taken by DCGI/SDCs to stop hoarding/ black marketing/ overcharging of Covid management drugs like Remdesivir, Tocilizumab, Favipiravir, etc. By May 1, as many as 78 actions have been taken all over India, in coordination with SDCs, local police, FDA etc. for hoarding, overcharging, black marketing, and arrests were made/ cases were registered. Seizures of drugs, vehicles, empty vials (meant probably for making spurious drugs) and cash were made. In one case in Chandigarh, Remdesivir vials to the tune of 3000 units were recovered, the Minister was told.

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