In a positive development, the Union Health Ministry on Monday said that Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, and 10 other states are showing signs of plateauing in its daily COVID-19 cases.
Addressing a news briefing, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said 13 states, including Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, and Punjab, are showing early signs of plateauing.
The states showing signs of plateauing are: Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Daman and Diu, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Ladakh, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Telengana, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.
Meanwhile, states like Bihar, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal are showing an increasing trend in daily cases, said Agarwal. These states should take required precautionary measures, he added.
The states showing an increasing trend in daily cases are: Bihar, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, West Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chandigarh, Goa, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, and Puducherry.
With regards to districts, Agarwal said Durg, Gariyaband, Raipur, Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh; Chhindwara, Guna, Shajapur in Madhya Pradesh, Leh in Ladakh; Nirmal in Telangana are showing signs of decline in cases in the last 15 days. Agarwal said 12 districts of Maharashtra are also showing signs of a decline since the last 15 days.
"However, these are very early signals and this is too early to analyse the situation. It is important to have continued efforts of containment at district and state level so that we can preserve these gains and reduce cases further," he said.
On vaccine coverage, he said so far 12.07 crore (first dose for 10.53 crore people and second dose for 1.54 crore) above the age of 45 years have been vaccinated.
