The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday said that the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is still not over.
"A high number of COVID cases are being reported across the world and the pandemic is far from over. As far as India is concerned, the second wave is still not over. There is an increase in reproduction number (Rt) globally and for India it is 1.2," Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary at the Union Health Ministry, said in New Delhi.
He said that the United States, Canada, Australia and India have 1.2 R number on an average. This means that one infected individual is infecting more than one person. R number is high in 8 states of India, Agarwal said.
Stating that 49.85% of the total cases in just the past one week were reported from Kerala, he said that there are 44 districts across the country where the positivity rate is more than 10%.
Districts in the states that are reporting high cases are: Kerala – 10, Maharashtra – 3, Manipur – 2, Arunachal – 1, Meghalaya – 1, Mizoram – 1. As much as 47% of cases have come from these districts, while 40% of the cases have come from Kerala alone, the Joint Secretary said during the weekly health briefing.
The central government said that 18 districts are reporting an increasing trend in cases over the past 4 weeks, with the weekly positivity rate less than 2%.
On June 1, there were 279 districts in the country where over 100 cases were reported, but it has now come down to 57 districts.
The caseload has decreased in 222 districts, while the case trajectory is seen in limited areas. There are 18 districts, including 10 in Kerala, where an increasing trend in cases is seen. These 18 districts constitute of 47.5% of the cases, the central government said.
