No new COVID-19 deaths have been reported from 15 States/UTs in the last 24 hours with Andaman, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Mizoram, Nagaland, Lakshadweep reporting no deaths due to the virus in three weeks, said Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Tuesday at a press conference.
He said India has registered a 55% decline in the average daily COVID-19 deaths in the last five weeks and that 33 States/UTs have fewer than 5,000 active cases.
“The average daily deaths continue a sharp decline and from a high of 211 in the second week of January 2021, they have reduced to 96 in the second week of February. The case fatality rate is amongst the lowest in the world at 1.43% while the global average stands at 2.18%,’’ he said.
The Ministry said daily new cases continue to manifest a downward trend with 9,110 being registered in the last 24 hours. The active caseload has also dropped to 1.43 lakh (1,43,625) on Tuesday with the active caseload now consisting of 1.32% of the positive cases. It said the number of healthcare and frontline workers vaccinated has reached 65.28 lakh with 2,69,202 beneficiaries vaccinated till Tuesday, while 25 AEFIs have been reported.
Asked about the preliminary data on minimal effectiveness of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine at preventing mild to moderate disease caused by the South Africa variant, member (health) NITI Aayog V.K. Paul, said the vaccine offers protection against severe disease, hospitalisation and death.
“The South Africa variant is not in India as of yesterday [Monday] but a strict watch is being kept on any mutation and variant entry. We know that it spreads faster,’’ he said.
He said while several other vaccines are in the pipeline, the current stockpile will be used to vaccinate the vulnerable population first. “Our priority is to protect a large population from mortality.”
Maintaining that the government’s priority is to vaccinate the 30 crore vulnerable people first, the Health Ministry said it has directed the States/UTs to organise mop-up rounds to vaccinate healthcare and frontline workers who may have been left behind during the initial drive. The mop-up rounds are to be scheduled before February 24.
Mr. Bhushan said: “We can’t indefinitely keep on scheduling and rescheduling the drives. The States/UTs have been advised that all healthcare workers must be scheduled for at least the first dose by February 20. Those left behind will be scheduled for age-wise vaccination after it.’’
He said as per the feedback received by the Ministry, “We can confidently say the strategy to implement the programme and the experience of vaccination are consistently, very highly rated by the people. As per the responses we have got, 97% people are claiming that they are satisfied with the overall vaccination experience.’’
The Ministry said the national committee looking into the adverse event following vaccination had its first meeting on February 5 and discussed eight cases. Causality assessment of five cases (two deaths and three hospitalised) was conducted.
“Two cases were diagnosed as anaphylaxis — classified as vaccine-product related reactions [known and expected reactions following vaccinations] and one case was diagnosed as syncope — classified as immunisation-triggered stress response [anxiety reaction]. Causality assessment of three [death] cases was deferred and histopathology and chemical analysis report called for,’’ said Mr. Bhushan.
