AMID RISE in Covid-19 cases, India on Sunday witnessed a slight dip in the daily Covid-19 cases in last 24 hours. India as compared to the day before logged 5,357 new infections - taking the total tally to 44,756,616. On Saturday, a total of 6,155 cases were reported. According to the health ministry data, the active infections stand at 32,814.
Meanwhile, a total of 44,192,837 people have recovered so far with the recovery rate rising to 98.74 percent. Also, the country witnessed 11 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the death tally to 53,09,65 deaths. The fatality rate stands at 1.19 percent. According to the data, health officials have conducted 1,57,894 tests for coronavirus in the last 24 hours.
The sudden rise in Covid cases has brought back several restrictions and curbs including masks in several states. Also, the health department of States has announced to increase in daily testing and screening. On coming Monday and Tuesday, a nationwide mock drill is planned to assess emergency preparedness of both public and private hospitals.
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WHO Regional Director, South-East Asia, Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh has stressed that 'Decreasing levels of immunity in our population may trigger new Covid waves and to tackle this, India needs a strong disease surveillance along with high vaccine coverage'
On Being asked about the possibility to see a new Covid wave? Singh replied, "Over the past six months, we have been seeing surges in infection in some countries that have not been associated with a rapid increase in the need for hospitalisation, intensive care, or an increase in fatalities. As the virus continues to circulate and evolve, we will continue to see waves of infections."
"While these waves are not likely to be as large as before as we have population-level immunity that has increased around the world from vaccination and prior infection, we should, by no means, downplay the threat from Covid-19 and become complacent. We must reduce the risk to ourselves and to others from Covid-19," she said.
"We can also expect new waves of infection as our immunity wanes. We can contain the impact of this with strong disease surveillance, high vaccine coverage, and making our health systems more resilient. We also need to strengthen our capacity to track the virus and urgently address any gaps in the health systems. As we continue to do all this, we need to transition to long-term control of Covid-19 and other respiratory diseases," Dr Singh added.