Covid-19 peak will come, virus can again emerge: Govt

As the country battles the second wave of Covid19 the government Thursday said the virus may emerge again and so preparations have to be made at the national level in collaboration with states infrastructure needs to be ramped up while curbs and appropriate behaviour must be followedDismissing allegations that the government was unaware of the intensity of the second wave NITI Aayog member health Dr V K Paul said We kept warning again and again from this platform that the second wave of Covid19 will comeIt was said that the seropositivity is 20 per cent 80 per cent of the population is still vulnerable and that virus has not gone anywhere and other countries were also witnessing a resurgeAt a press conference Paul said The prime minister had conveyed the country about the emerging second wave on March 17 without creating panic and had said that we have to fight itWas such a peak expected he said well no modelling can predict the size of a peak as the unexpected behaviour virus is well knownSo peak will come the virus can again emerge we know So preparations have to be made at country level in collaboration with states infrastructure has to be ramped up containment measures have to be implemented and Covid19 appropriate behaviour has to be followedWe had not created panic other countries have faced multiple peaks after all its a pandemic he saidHe said it is the nature of the disease that it will ultimately go to villagesThis epidemiology is well known Paul said as he urged people to follow Covid19 appropriate behaviour and embrace vaccinationJoint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said that plateauing in daily new Covid19 cases and a slight decline positivity rate have been recorded in the country over the past three days but added 10 states still have a positivity rate of more than 25 per cent which was worrisome trendHe said as many as 12 states have more than 1 lakh active Covid19 cases while 24 states have more than 15 per cent case positivity rateThere are 10 states Goa Puducherry West Bengal Karntaka Haryana Rajasthan Chandigarh Himachal Pradesh Andhra Pradesh and Odisha where the Covid19 case positivity rate is more than 25 per cent while there are eight states including Delhi Tamil Nadu Maharashtra and Kerala where it is more than 20 per cent which is a worrisome trend he saidHe however said the number of districts with weekon week rise in Covid19 tests yet decline in positivity rate has increased from 125 in April 2228 to 338 between May 6 and 12Maharashtra Uttar Pradesh Delhi Rajasthan Chhattisgarh Bihar Gujarat Madhya Pradesh Karnataka Goa and Telangana were among 20 states and union territories showing continued plateauing or decrease in daily new Covid19 casesKerala Tamil Nadu West Bengal Punjab Assam Odisha Himachal Pradesh Pudusherry and Manipur were among 16 states and union territories showing continued increasing trend in daily new Covid19 cases and remain area of concernThere 316 districts showing an increasing trend in Covid19 cases since last two weeks while 187 districts have relatively shown a decline in Covid19 cases during the same period he saidIndia has been reeling under a catastrophic second wave of the coronavirus pandemicOn Thursday the country added 362727 new coronavirus infections taking the Covid19 tally of cases to 23703665 while the death toll rose to 258317 with 4120 daily fatalities according to the Union Health Ministry data updated this morningThe active cases have increased to 3710525 comprising 1565 per cent of the total infectionsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever