New Delhi: An estimated 88 per cent of the 1,60,441 Covid-19 deaths in India have happened in the over-45 age group. The case fatality rate in this age bracket is 2.85 per cent against a national average of 1.37 per cent.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released these figures Wednesday while talking about the Union cabinet’s decision Tuesday to open up vaccinations for anyone above 45 years of age from 1 April.
At a time when Punjab and Maharashtra continue to be the epicentres of the Covid surge in the country, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) director Sujit Singh said 771 variants of the SARS-CoV2 virus have been detected in 18 states of the country but there is no evidence to link the present surge to the variants.
Currently, nine of the top 10 districts in the country with the most number of active cases are in Maharashtra — Pune (43,590 cases), Nagpur (33,160), Mumbai (26,599), Thane (22,513), Nashik (15,710), Aurangabad (15,380), Nanded (10,106) Jalgaon (6,087) and Akola (5,704).
The only other district in the top 10 list is Bengaluru Urban with 10,766 cases. The other states that were described as states of “grave concern” were Chhattisgarh, Chandigarh (UT), Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
“There is no evidence of the present surge being linked to these variants. The reasons are pandemic fatigue and disruptions in Covid-appropriate behavior,” said Singh.
“…two double mutants have also been found; these are E484Q and L-452 R. There have been 206 samples from Maharashtra that have tested positive and about nine from Delhi,” he added.
His proclamation came a day after Punjab reported that 81 per cent of the 400 samples that it had sent for genome sequencing in the NCDC laboratory had tested positive for the mutant UK strain, which is known to be more infectious.
Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said a meeting has been convened by the Centre Saturday with officials of these states and also those from the high burden districts to discuss the situation.
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No problem of blood clot because of Covishield in India
Amid concerns across the world about blood clots in vaccinated people following the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine, Niti Aayog Member (Health) V.K. Paul emphasised that there are no such worries in India.
The Indian product Covishield, he said, “has not been associated with any incidents of thrombosis…” Thrombosis refers to a rare blood clot.
“Both the vaccines currently in use in India are effective against the Brazil and the UK strains. Please do not spread misinformation on this,” Paul said.
All the officials made fervent public appeals for return to “Covid-appropriate” behaviour in the face of what now looks like a resurgence of the virus in various parts of the country even as five states are set to vote starting 27 March.
Bhushan said elaborate guidelines are already in place for the conduct of elections during the pandemic and those should be followed.
State-wise variations in vaccination coverage
While several states like Nagaland, Odisha, Tripura, Kerala and Uttarakhand have fully vaccinated 85 per cent or more of their healthcare workers, Telangana, Punjab, Nagaland and Chandigarh is still below 65 per cent.
Bhushan said both Chandigarh and Punjab have been reminded that the slow pace of vaccinations there are compounded by the rising cases and hence they have to pull up their socks.
Madhya Pradesh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu have vaccinated 100 per cent frontline workers with the first dose of the vaccine, while Telangana and Chandigarh lag on that count too.
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