Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Thursday said the challenge of COVID-19 has not ended yet. "To some extent, we say that we haven't controlled the second wave of COVID. We need to make continuous efforts," he added.
Bhushan said five states, including Kerala and Maharashtra, have more than 10,000 active cases. "On an average, 20,000 COVID cases have been recorded daily. Of these 56% cases were reported from Kerala last week," he said. "Overall positivity rate of the country was nearly at 1.68% last week as compared to that of 5.86% earlier," he added.
The Union Health Secretary said there are 28 districts including few in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam which have case positivity rate between 5% & 10%, i.e, they have a high infection rate. There are 34 districts which are reporting weekly positivity rate of over 10%, he added.
Ahead of the ongoing and upcoming festivals, Bhushan said: "We need to be watchful of the months of October, November & December. We need to be alert."
Speaking about the vaccination drive, he said Lakshadweep, Chandigarh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar and Sikkim have vaccinated 100% of its population with the first dose of vaccine.
He said 71 per cent of India's adult population have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, while 27 per cent have got both doses.
Listing its preparations to tackle any surge in coronavirus infections, the Ministry said 8.36 lakh hospital beds are currently available in the country for COVID-19 patients, in addition to nearly one million isolation beds in dedicated care centres.
It said 4.86 oxygen-supported beds and 1.35 lakh ICU beds are available. "We are prepared to face a daily surge of 4.5-5 lakh COVID-19 cases.
He said there is no issue of vaccine availability in the country now.
Meanwhile, with 22,431 people testing positive for coronavirus infection in a day, India's total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 3,38,94,312, according to the Union Health Ministry's data updated on Thursday.
The death toll climbed to 4,49,856 with 318 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.
