SPIKE IN CASES COVID SITUATION IN MAHARASHTRA, PUNJAB IS OF GRAVE CONCERN: HEALTH MINISTRY

New Delhi: Amid the rise of COVID-19 cases, the Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Wednesday held a press conference in New Delhi and said asserted that the spike in coronavirus cases of Maharashtra and Punjab is of grave concern.

Bhushan said, “Two states are of grave concern, that have shown a recent surge in cases – Maharashtra, that reported more than 28,000 cases in the last 24 hours and Punjab, that is reporting a huge number of cases in proportion to its population.” However, besides them, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are of concern too. Gujarat reporting around 1700 cases daily and Madhya Pradesh around 1500 cases.

“Most cases in Gujarat concentrated in Surat, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, and Bhavnagar. In Madhya Pradesh, it’s concentrated in Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Ujjain, and Betul,” he added.

He further stated that the top 10 districts where maximum active cases are concentrated include nine districts from Maharashtra and one from Karnataka.

The districts are Pune, Nagpur, Mumbai, Thane, Nashik, Aurangabad, Bengaluru Urban, Nanded, Jalgaon and Akola.

Talking over Centre’s decision on opening the vaccination drive to anyone above the age of 45 years, the secretary said, “About 88 per cent of all COVID-19 deaths in the country are taking place above the age group of 45 years. The case fatality rate above 45 years is 2.85 per cent. So this age group is vulnerable and the decision has been taken based on scientific inputs.”

As per the Union Health Ministry on Wednesday India has reported 47,262 new COVID-19 cases, 23,907 recoveries, and 275 deaths in the last 24 hours.

The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 5 crore marks on March 23, said Union Health Ministry on Tuesday.