New Delhi: A plateauing in daily new Covid-19 cases and a slight decline in positivity rate have been recorded in the country over the past three days, the government said Thursday, but added 10 states still have a positivity rate of 25 per cent or more.
Delhi logged 10,500 new cases over 24 days, a dip of 21% over the previous day. Consequently, the city’s oxygen demand has reduced so much that it can give its surplus oxygen to other states that need it, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said.
According to the central government, the number of districts with week-on-week rise in Covid-19 tests, yet decline in the positivity rate has increased from 125 in April 22-28 to 338 between May 6 and 12.
Addressing a press conference, a senior official, also said as many as 12 states have more than 1 lakh active Covid-19 cases, while 24 states have more than 15 percent positivity rate.
Yet, over 4,000 people lost their lives for a second straight day. While the numbers of new infections dwindled slightly with 3.62 lakh new cases reported, the situation shows some improvement in urban areas, but the rural population is still suffering silently.
Meanwhile, stung by the shortage of vaccines, the government said that more than 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines will become available soon in the country. NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul said that the department of biotechnology, and other departments concerned, and the ministry of external affairs have been in touch with vaccine manufacturers like Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.
The Centre reiterated that any vaccine which is approved by US’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and WHO can come to India.
“Import license will be granted within 1-2 days. No import license is pending,” Dr Paul said. Last month, the central government had fast-tracked approvals for Covid-19 vaccines cleared for use in the US, the UK, the European Union and Japan.
As the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines, India exported more than 65 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines under its “Vaccine Maitri” initiative but supplies have slowed to a trickle since March as domestic infection rates surged.
