Upward trend

New Delhi, Nov 3 : Delhi, Kerala, West Bengal and Manipur have been showing an increasing trend in the number of active covid-19 cases when compared to the month of October, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
The Govt emphasized that chain of transmission can only break by adopting strict testing strategy. “Even if there is a mild symptom, test immediately. If we miss one positive case, it will adversely affect people in thousands. Winters can also increase the spread. It is in our hands to control and stop a new peak," said VK Paul, Member, Health, NITI Aayog.
India has done over 11 crores cumulative covid-19 tests and the cumulative positivity rate of the country is 7.4%. Mentioning about European countries Paul said that “even if the positivity rate is only 10-12 %, it should not be taken it for granted. Everyone remains susceptible to the infection.
Meanwhile, the Government also said that the weekly and daily positivity rate as well as average daily new deaths and new cases have been declining. The States like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh have been showing steady decline in number of active cases, Union Health Ministry said.
“With a cumulative positivity rate of 7.4%, and a recovery rate of around 92%, the total number of covid-19 recovered cases has crossed 76 lakhs which is the highest in the world. Active covid-19 cases are now below 5.5 lakhs, which is only 6.8% of the total historical number of covid-19 cases reported so far," said Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The total tally of covid-19 cases swelled to 82,69, 651 and toll touched 1,23,738 on Tuesday. The new confirmed cases in the last 24 hours have fallen under 40,000, the Government said. The daily new cases stand at 38,310 after 15 weeks (105 days). The new added cases were 37,724 on 22nd July, 2020. The total positive cases of the country are 5,41,405 and comprise 6.55% of the total cases.
At least 74% of the new confirmed cases are from 10 States and UTs. Kerala, Delhi and Maharashtra have contributed the maximum to the new cases with more than 4,000 cases, the Government said. West Bengal follows with more than 3,000 new cases. At least 490 case fatalities have been reported in the past 24 hours. Of these, nearly 80% are concentrated in ten States/UTs. Maharashtra has reported maximum single day deaths (104 deaths). India’s case Fatality Rate stands at 1.49%.
“Following COVID Appropriate Behaviour is the most cost-effective preventive treatment for this disease. There are evidences that mask is very effective and nearly as good as a vaccine. Mask should be worn while doing exercise as well, it does not alter the blood oxygen level," Balram Bhargava, Director General, Indian council of Medical Research (ICMR) said.
While talking about the steps taken by the Government in providing training facilities to frontline workers, the Health Secretary said that an Integrated Government Online Training (iGOT) platform was created by the Government during the pandemic. “It is an online cloud-based capacity building platform of Department of Personnel and Training which delivers appropriate training material online simultaneously to unlimited number of learners, at the time and place of their choice," said Bhushan.
The platform had more than 13.60 lakh unique users which include doctors, nurses, allied & healthcare professional, NCC cadets, NSS volunteers and frontline workers, he said adding that more than than 19 lakh digital courses have been completed and certificates issued to more than 15 lakh trainees after assessment.
The top 50 districts with highest course completions are from the states of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Maharashtra, Kerala, West Bengal and Chandigarh Bhushan said. The training modules have both training videos as well as documents uploaded on iGOT portal. These include videos for basics of COVID, Clinical Management including Intensive Care, Isolation Facility, Frontline Workers, Infection Prevention & Control, Psycho – Social care etc.