Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan reviews Covid-19 situation of 11 states

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday said that most of the Covid-19 deaths in the second wave have taken place in the 60-plus age group even though people in the 15-44 age bracket were getting infected more this time.

At a review meeting with health ministers of 11 states — Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan — with rising Covid-19 numbers, Vardhan also shared his concerns on Chhattisgarh, which has been emerging as a big troubling area on the Covid-19 front.

While Maharashtra overwhelms all the other states on the number of fresh daily cases and death count, the situation in Chhattisgarh is worsening every day.

Read: Maharashtra sees 55,469 new Covid-19 cases; 297 deaths

“The worst-affected state (after Maharashtra) is Chhattisgarh with a positivity rate of 20% and growth rate of 8%. There has been a 10-fold rise in cases. In Punjab, 80% of the UK variant cases were found, which was confirmed by genome sequencing,” Vardhan said at the review.

Earlier, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had said the central Indian state witnessed a weekly positivity rate of nearly 17% in the current week. But still, its share of RT-PCR tests in the mix of diagnostics remains in the range of around 30% instead of recommended 70%.

The 11 states together contributed to 54% of India’s total Covid-19 cases and 65% of deaths in the country, with a disproportionately high number of deaths in Maharashtra and Punjab and a high test positivity rate in Maharashtra (25%) and Chhattisgarh.

Read: Covid-19 vaccines not for those below 45 years: Centre rejects demands to vaccinate all above 18 years

Vardhan noted since February 2021, these states witnessed a steep increase in cases and a majority of such cases have been reported in the younger population of 15-44 years. But the majority of the deaths have been reported among the 60-plus population.

The minister observed that a large part of the reason for the surge in cases in almost all parts of the country, more specifically in these 11 states, was that people’s lax behavior towards Covid-19-appropriate behaviour.