The Union health ministry on Tuesday expressed serious concern after four states across India, including Manipur, have registered a huge spike in Covid19 cases.
“Manipur, Delhi, Kerala and West Bengal have been witnessing a spike in Covid19 cases in the last few days and it’s a matter of serious concern,” said Union health secretary Rajesh Kumar Agarwal in New Delhi.
He attributed the spike in Covid19 cases to the ongoing festive season and coming winter.
However, Manipur is the only state amongst the four which witnessed an increase of 54 active cases in the last 24 hours.
The other three states reported no fresh active cases.
“Manipur, Kerala, Delhi and West Bengal have been showing an increasing trend in the number of active COVID cases when compared to the month of October,” said Bhushan.
The health ministry earlier predicted such a spike in Covid19 cases due to the ongoing festive season.
India till date has conducted more than 11 crore Covid19 tests in more than 2,000 laboratories across the country.
With a cumulative positivity rate of 7.4% and a recovery rate of around 92%, the total number of recovered Covid19 cases has crossed 76 lakhs which is the highest in the world.
“Active COVID19 cases are now below 5.5 lakhs, which is only 6.8 percent of the total historical number of COVID cases reported so far,” said health secretary Bhushan.
Bhushan informed that the weekly and daily positivity rate as well as the average daily new deaths and new cases have been declining.
India’s number of cases per million population as well as deaths per million population continue to be the lowest in the world.
While talking about the steps taken by the government in providing training facilities to frontline workers, he said, “an Integrated Government Online Training (iGOT)’ platform was created by the government during the Pandemic”.
“It is an online cloud-based capacity building platform of the Department of Personnel and Training which delivers appropriate training material online simultaneously to an unlimited number of learners, at the time and place of their choice,” he added.
Bhushan said the platform had more than 13.60 lakh unique users which include doctors, nurses, allied & healthcare professionals, NCC cadets, NSS volunteers and frontline workers.
More than 19 lakh digital courses have been completed and certificates issued to more than 15 lakh trainees after assessment.
“The top 50 districts with highest course completions are from the states of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Maharashtra, Kerala, West Bengal and Chandigarh”, Bhushan said.
Bhushan emphasized on ‘Test – Track – Trace & Treat’ strategy proactively in order to protect and preserve what the country has achieved so far.
“Let us keep our focus on this strategy even if our numbers are coming down,” he said.
Member, health, NITI Aayog, Dr VK Paul, pointed out the surge in European countries and remarked that “even if the positivity rate is only 10-12 percent, we should not take it for granted. We are susceptible to infection and hence everyone should always follow COVID Appropriate Behaviours.”
He also said, “We can break the chain of transmission by adopting strict testing strategies”.
“Even if there is a mild symptom, test immediately. There is no need to fear. If we miss one positive case, it will adversely affect people in thousands,” said Dr Paul.