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The overall Covid situation in the country is optimistic as daily cases have been less than one lakh for the last 4-5 days and the positivity rate is also at 4-6 per cent, said VK Paul, Member – Health, Niti Aayog, on Thursday. However, he cautioned that there are some States where the positivity rate is still high including Kerala, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
On Thursday, India reported 67,084 cases with 1,241 deaths in the 24 hours till 8:00 am, as per Health Ministry data. While the daily positivity rate in the country was at 4.44 per cent, weekly positivity rate was at 6.58 per cent. On Thursday evening, infections in Kerala stood at 18,420 and in Maharashtra, these were at 6,248.
Constant vigilance
“At the district level, around 40 districts have witnessed an increase in weekly and positivity rates and about 200 districts have more than 10 per cent positivity rate,” said Paul. He added that considering these points of concern, it is not the right time to lower one’s guard.
“As per WHO, if going into the future, this is not the end of the virus. The virus is still around in the world and it is under pressure to be fitter and smarter so that it can penetrate defenses. The world doesn’t know everything about this virus and it is important to be vigilant to track the situation,” he added.
“On January 21, there was a huge surge and cases were at more than 3.27 lakh. Now, it has reduced by 80 per cent to around 66,000 this day,” Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health MInistry, said on Thursday.
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Meanwhile, Paul said 96 per cent vaccination coverage has been achieved for the first dose and 78 per cent for the second. The pace of inoculation is tremendous, he added.
“All the decisions related to vaccines — including precautionary doses — are being taken on scientific evidence and other epidemiological considerations,” Paul said when asked about the third dose for the rest of the population.
mRNA vaccine
“We have an mRNA vaccine developed by Gennova Biopharmaceuticals which is in the clinical trial stage right now and we hope that it will reach a level when it can be used for emergency use,” Paul said to a BusinessLine query on the mRNA vaccine.
“mRNA vaccines can survive under cold chain storage and be easily transported, unlike other vaccines which are stored at zero temperature. Also, they are trying to administer it intradermally which is a tremendous advantage. They have also tweaked it according to Omicron,” Paul added.
“We need the mRNA platform because it has shown that mRNA vaccines are effective. Not just for Covid, but for other diseases as well including malaria,” Paul added.
Revised guidelines
The Health Ministry on Thursday also revised travel guidelines for international passengers arriving in India from February 14. It removed the demarcation of countries ‘at-risk’ and other countries. The government also recommended 14 days of self-monitoring post-arrival as compared to the earlier 7-day home quarantine mandate.
“Besides uploading a negative RT-PCR report taken 72 hrs before journey, passengers also have the option to upload a certificate of completion of full primary vaccination schedule of Covid from countries on a reciprocal basis,” the Health Ministry statement said.
“All travellers will self-monitor their health for the next 14 days of arrival. If travellers under self-health monitoring develop signs and symptoms suggestive of Covid, they must immediately self-isolate and report to their nearest health facility, or call the national helpline number (1075)/ State Helpline Number,” it added.
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