India Covid-19 second wave has crossed previous spike, worrying: Govt

New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday said the second wave of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has crossed the previous highest surge and the upward trend of the infections is a cause of concern.

Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan pointed out that the trend in India’s Covid-19 cases trajectory in the second wave is “worrying”.

“We have 89.51% people who have been cured, 1.25% deaths and 9.24% active cases. If we look at new cases, we will find that the previous highest surge has already been crossed and the trend is going upward. That is a cause for worry,” Bhushan said during a press conference.

The top health ministry official added that the daily Covid-19 deaths recorded in the country are registering an increasing trend but is yet to cross the highest toll seen during India’s first wave last year.

“However, the previous surge’s highest point was 1114 and presently we have reported 879 deaths,” Bhushan was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

India still has more than 1.67 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses still available with states and UTs, the Centre said on Tuesday, underlining that the problem is not of vaccine shortage but of better planning.

Bhushan said so far states and UTs have received 13,10,90,370 vaccine doses, out of which the total consumption, including wastage, has been 11,43,69,677.

“As per 11 am data, unutilised doses available with states and union territories for administration is 1,67,20,693. From now till April end, 2,01,22,960 doses are in supply pipeline to states and UTs,” he said.

Providing the data from states where the infection is showing rapid growth despite low testing through RTPCR, the health secretary said that there the ministry has a reason to believe that if RT-PCR tests proportion goes up, then positivity may show a corresponding increase.

“In Maharashtra, you’ll find that average daily cases, week on week, have grown significantly and reached a level of 57,000 plus. Tests per million are also growing but not keeping pace with the growth of average daily cases. If you look at the share of RT-PCR tests, it’s progressively coming down,” he said.

Bhushan said that the weekly positivity rate in Chattisgarh is also increasing from one and a half percent, it has increased to 27.9 per cent, and added that this is another cause for concern.