COVID-19: Nearly 3 lakh more infected as India grapples with swamped health infra

The singleday rise in new Coronavirus infections inched closer to 3 lakh and a record 2023 daily fatalities were added in a span of 24 hours according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday morningA total of 295041 fresh cases were recorded and the active cases rose to 2157538 The national COVID19 recovery rate has dropped to 8501 per centAccording to reports that cited health experts a new variant of SARSCoV2 has emerged in India which is even more capable of evading immune response A triple mutant mdash a combination of three mutated strains of SARSCoV2 mdash is said to be spreading in Maharashtra Delhi and West BengalTill now India was grappling with the much more infectious double mutant ldquoThis is a more transmissible variant It is making lots of people sick very quickly We have to keep tweaking vaccines For that we need to understand the disease But we need sequencing on war footingrdquo said Madhukar Pai professor of epidemiology at McGill University told NDTVldquoAs you can notice West Bengal seems to be becoming the hotspot for such mutations The new triple mutant could make the virus even more capable of evading human immune responserdquo the Indian Express quoted a source as saying ldquoWe need to do a lot more sequencing of a lot many samplesrdquoExperts said the slow pace of genome sequencing meant delayed detection of double mutant which could have caused the massive surge in casesMeanwhile vaccination for every adult starts on May 1 and the present system of private vaccination centres receiving doses from the government and charging up to Rs 250 per dose will cease to exist and they will procure directly from manufacturers the health ministry saidAccording to the Liberalised Pricing and Accelerated National COVID19 Vaccination Strategy vaccination will continue to be free for eligible population groups comprising healthcare and frontline workers and population aged above 45 in government COVID vaccination centres which receive doses from the Centre1st postvaccination infection data outOver 21000 people tested positive for COVID19 after taking the first dose of either Covishield or Covaxin and 5709 after taking the second dose the Centre said on Wednesday ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava said that postvaccination infection ldquois known as breakthrough infection This is a very small number and not at all worrisomerdquoFree vaccination for all in three statesAssam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said everyone in the age group of 1845 will be vaccinated for free ldquoGOI is giving free vaccines for 45rdquo he tweeted Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh governments also said they will vaccinate every eligible adult for free15616130Total no of coronavirus cases in India so far182553Total no of deaths due to the virus in India so far13276039Total no of patients recovered and discharged in India so far130119310Total no of people vaccinated so farThis 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