Whole Country At Risk, COVID-19 Situation Turning From Bad To Worse, Says Centre

New Delhi: The coronavirus situation is turning from bad to worse and is a huge cause of worry especially for some states, the Centre said on Tuesday. It stressed that the whole country at risk and nobody should be complacent.

It said that eight of the top 10 COVID-19 high burden districts of the country are from Maharashtra and that Delhi, taken as one district, is also on the list, The New Indian Express (TNIE) reported quoting PTI.

Though technically speaking, Delhi has many districts, but it has been taken as one district, he said.

NITI Aayog member (Health) V K Paul said, “COVID-19 situation is turning from bad to worse. In the last few weeks, especially in some states, it is a huge cause for worry. No state, no part of the country or district should be complacent.”

“We are facing an increasingly severe and intense situation, more so surely in some districts. But the whole country is potentially at risk and therefore all efforts to contain and save lives should be taken.

“Hospital and ICU preparations have to be readied. If the cases increase rapidly, the healthcare system would be overwhelmed, Paul was quoted as saying.

About the surge in case positivity rates, Bhushan said Maharashtra last week had an average positivity rate of 23 per cent, followed by Punjab 8.82 per cent, Chattisgarh 8.24 per cent, Madhya Pradesh 7.82 per cent, Tamil Nadu 2.5 per cent, Karnataka 2.45 per cent, Gujarat 2.22 per cent, and Delhi 2.04 per cent.

The average national positivity rate during last week was 5.65 per cent.

All states and Union Territories are reporting a surge in cases and there is a need to significantly and exponentially increase the number of COVID-19 tests.

The proportion of RT-PCR tests need to be increased too, Bhushan said.

“On Saturday, we held meeting with these states and also spoke to 47 districts. We requested them to increase the number of tests with a special focus on RT-PCR tests. Rapid antigen tests must be used for screening and in densely populated areas where cases are coming in clusters. The preferred test should be the RT-PCR ones,” he said.