Health ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal on Tuesday said that tourists visiting hill stations were not following COVID-19 appropriate behaviour and warned that it can nullify the gains made in the management of the pandemic so far.
He cautioned that the Centre may reintroduce restrictions if people do not follow pandemic norms. Stressing that the pandemic was not yet over, he described the images of large numbers of people thronging popular hill stations as “frightening”.
The government said violations of COVID-19 protocols will lead to a further increase in infections as it stressed on wearing of masks and maintaining physical distancing.
The second wave of COVID-19 has come down in most states. However, some states are still in the midst of the second wave and the areas reporting a test positivity rate of over 10 percent have to impose/reinstate restriction measures, the Centre said on Tuesday.
In a joint press conference on the pandemic situation and vaccination status, Agarwal said as many as 73 districts across 17 states and union territories reported more than 10 percent COVID-19 positivity rate in the week from 29 June to 5 July.
A total of 91 districts in the country reported more than 100 daily new cases in the week ending 4 July, he said.
Eighty percent of Covid cases in India were reported from 90 districts across 14 states and Union territories, indicating the need for focused attention in these areas, the official said.
With 553 fresh fatalities, India recorded the lowest daily toll in around 90 days while 34,703 new cases of coronavirus were reported, the lowest in 111 days, the Union health ministry said on Tuesday. With the fresh cases, the total tally of COVID-19 cases climbed to 3,06,19,932, while the toll climbed to 4,03,281.
The active cases further declined to 4,64,357, the lowest in 101 days, and comprise 1.52 percent of the total infections.
Meanwhile, India’s cumulative COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 35.75 crore with over 45 lakh vaccine doses being administered in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
The ministry also stated that more than 1.66 crore balance and unutilised COVID-19 vaccine doses are still available with the states, UTs and private hospitals to be administered.
Over 37.07 crore vaccine doses have been provided to states and UTs so far through all sources and a further 23,80,000 doses are in the pipeline. Of this, the total consumption including wastage is 35,40,60,197 doses, the ministry said.
Ensure people in mental health homes tested for COVID-19, vaccinated: SC to Centre
The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to ensure that people lodged in mental health establishments are tested for COVID-19 and are fully vaccinated at the earliest.
A bench of justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah took serious note of the Maharashtra government’s shifting patients lodged in mental health institutes to homes for beggars and asked it to discontinue the practice immediately saying it is counter-productive and runs against the provisions of the Mental Health Act.
The top court also directed all states and Union territories to extend all cooperation and participate in the meeting of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to be held on 12 July.
It asked states/UTs to remove the discrepancies in figures submitted about the people who have been cured but are still languishing in mental health institutions or who still need treatment.
The bench said that from now on it will monitor the case and would start listing the case after three weeks as it is a very sensitive matter.
70% of kids in Chandigarh have antibodies, finds sero survey
According to CNN-New18, a sero survey among children in Chandigarh has found that out of 756 samples, 519 children were already found infected. This means antibodies have been formed in them. Antibodies have been found in 70 percent of the children in the slum area of Chandigarh. A total of 2,700 samples are to be taken now.
Uttarakhand govt moves SC against HC order staying Chardham Yatra
The Uttarakhand government on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court against the high court order staying the Chardham Yatra while reversing a state cabinet’s decision to open it partially for residents of three districts from 1 July.
The state government said that the Uttarakhand High Court committed an error in not appreciating that the livelihood of a significant portion of the population living around the Char Dham is dependent on the Yatra.
It said that the High Court has wrongly stayed the part of the state cabinet order dated 25 June, with respect to conducting restricted Chardham Yatra, only for a fixed number of pilgrims residing in three districts of Chamoli, Rudraprayag, and Uttarkashi where the respective Char Dhams are located.
Assam announces total lockdown in 7 districts
The Assam government on Tuesday announced a complete lockdown in seven districts where the positivity rates of COVID-19 cases are high.
“The government imposed a round-the-clock curfew in Goalpara, Golaghat, Jorhat, Lakhimpur, Sonitpur, Biswanath, and Morigaon as the number of coronavirus cases in these districts continued to increase despite the imposition of certain restrictions earlier,” Health and Family Welfare Minister Keshab Mahanta said.
These districts have been brought under the containment zones, he said at a press conference.
Rural and tea garden areas in these districts have been reporting a substantial number of COVID-19 cases, the minister said. According to him, the positivity rates in the seven districts were recorded between 2.68 percent and 5.64 percent in the last few days.
Recent evidence points to natural origin of COVID, scientists write in Lancet
There is no scientifically validated evidence to support the theory that the coronavirus leaked from a laboratory in China, and more recent, peer-reviewed studies strongly suggest that the virus evolved in nature, a group of scientists wrote in The Lancet journal.
The report published on Monday was compiled by two dozen biologists, ecologists, epidemiologists, physicians, public health experts, and veterinarians from around the world.
“We believe the strongest clue from new, credible, and peer-reviewed evidence in the scientific literature is that the virus evolved in nature, while suggestions of a laboratory-leak source of the pandemic remain without scientifically validated evidence that directly supports it in peer-reviewed scientific journals,” the authors wrote in the journal.
The same team of scientists had last year dismissed the lab leak idea as a conspiracy theory in a report also published in The Lancet.
The latest report comes as many countries have called for further inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus, including the possibility that it escaped from a lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the first cases were reported in December 2019.
With inputs from PTI