India's active Covid cases down to 5,881

 

With the steady decline in Covid cases across the country, several state governments have relaxed travel norms and made wearing masks mandatory.

New Delhi: India reported 408 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, while active cases fell to 5,881, according to an update by the Union health ministry. The total reported cases in the country since the pandemic hit in 2020 now stand at 4,46,70,483, and the death toll at 530,601.

According to the Health Ministry, active cases account for 0.01% of the total reported infections, while the recovery rate stands at 98.80%.

As of now, Karnataka has 1,536 active cases, Kerala has 1,887 active cases. Maharashtra has 614 active cases, Odisha has 133 cases, Rajasthan has 214 cases, Tamil Nadu has 385 active cases, Uttar Pradesh has 148 and West Bengal has 119 active cases so far.

The country conducted over 230,054 tests in the last 24 hours.

So far, more than 219.88 crore vaccine doses have been given to people across the country under the Covid vaccination campaign.

“Covid will never be in an endemic state because that is the nature of RNA virus. The Covid virus is something that is mutating rapidly. The extant omicron viruses BA.1 and BA.2 have over 623 sub-mutations and sub-lineages. Therefore, they are evolving but the overall intensity, infectivity and pathogenicity and severity are decreasing. More importantly, the overall death rate continues to decrease. The reasons are: It is mild and another reason is that more than 98% of India's population is fully vaccinated. At the same time, a large number of elderly, co-morbid patients have already received booster doses. So, India is in a comfortable position right now," says pediatrician Dr Sanjeev Bagai.

“Covid Vaccines of India ie. Covishield and Covaxin have excellent efficacy against Omicron. Even if the new version comes out, the existing vaccines are evoking the immune response very well," Bagai said.

With the steady decline in Covid cases across the country, several state governments have relaxed travel norms and made wearing masks mandatory.

However, the Center has directed the States and Union Territories to continue surveillance of Influenza-like illness (III) and SARI cases and undertake continuous genome sequencing to track variants.