No coronavirus cases in 180 districts in a week: Harsh Vardhan

He said that across the country, the number of patients in ICU beds is 4,88,861

As the second wave of Covid-19 rages throughout the country, there are 180 districts that have not reported a single new case of the infectious disease.

Health Minister Harsh Vardhan shared this nugget during a meeting of the Group of Ministers on Covid-19 response on Saturday.

“180 districts have shown no fresh cases in the last seven days, 18 districts in 14 days, 54 districts in 21 days, and 32 districts were bereft of any fresh cases in the last 28 days,” the minister said.

However, states such as Karnataka, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala continue to be a cause of worry due to the high growth rate in Covid-19 cases.

Karnataka now ranks second in the country with over five lakh active cases of Covid-19 after Maharashtra which has nearly 6.5 lakh active cases

Read | 12 states account for over 80% of India's active coronavirus cases

Bengaluru (urban), Pune, Delhi, Nagpur, Mumbai, Ernakulam, Kozhikode, Thane, Nashik, Mallapuram, Thrissur, Jaipur, Gurugram, Thiruvananthapuram, Palakkad, are among the top 20 contributors of active cases in the country.

During the meeting, Sujeet Kumar Singh, Director of the National Centre for Disease Control stressed on the need to significantly ramp up testing and hospital infrastructure in Tier-II and Tier-III cities in view of the surge in cases in these regions.

“States of Maharashtra (1.27%), Karnataka (3.05%), Kerala (2.35%), Uttar Pradesh (2.44%), Tamil Nadu (1.86%), Delhi (1.92%), Andhra Pradesh (1.90%), West Bengal (2.19%), Chhattisgarh (2.06%), Rajasthan (2.99%), Gujarat (2.40%), Madhya Pradesh (2.24%) were highlighted because of their high seven-day growth rate in cases,” according to an official statement from the ministry.

The ministry said timely provision of clinical care to reduce morbidity and mortality, advance preparedness in anticipation of rise in cases, increase in rapid antigen test and tracing of those who might have contracted the infection, emphasis on clinic-epidemiological linkage of genomic surveillance with transmission dynamics, clinical severity and age profile of new cases were highlighted as important steps ahead in the meeting.