India Not Witnessing Severe Illness & Deaths In Third Covid Wave Due To High Vaccination: Govt

“Vaccines have remained beneficial in India. Deaths have considerably reduced due to vaccinations,” Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director General Dr Balram Bhargava said.

Getty Images

New Delhi: Asserting India is not witnessing severe illness, the Central government on Thursday said the deaths in the third wave of the coronavirus is due to high vaccination.

“Vaccines have remained beneficial in India. Deaths have considerably reduced due to vaccinations,” Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director General Dr Balram Bhargava said.

“In this third surge of Covid-19, we are currently not witnessing severe illness and deaths due to high vaccination uptake,” he added, ANI reported.

Meanwhile, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan  said the deaths due to Covid-19 is significantly less in the third wave of coronavirus in comparison to the second wave.

Bhushan said 11 states and Union Territories have more than 50,000 active Covid-19 cases, adding 515 districts are reporting a weekly case positivity of over 5 %, PTI reported.

Stating that vaccines have remained beneficial in India, Bhushan said the deaths have considerably reduced due to vaccinations.

“In this third surge of Covid-19, we are currently not witnessing severe illness and deaths due to high vaccination uptake,” he added.

The Health Secretary said the proportion of fully vaccinated people is 72% and added that 52% children in the 15-18 age group in the country have so far been vaccinated.

Bhushan said Asia is showing a sharp surge in global contribution to the Covid-19 cases from 7.9% to around 18.4 % in four weeks, adding a sharp surge is also seen in the cases in India.

The Health Secretary said Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh are among the “states of concern”.

“We have sent central health teams to these states and are continuously reviewing the situation,” Bhushan told a media briefing on the Covid-19 situation, ANI reported.

The Health Secretary said Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha, Delhi and Rajasthan are among the top 10 states in terms of active Covid cases.

Bhushan said there are 3,17,532 new Covid cases, 380 deaths and 19,24,051 active cases on January 20.

He added that there were 3,86,452 new cases, 3,059 deaths and over 31 lakh active cases in the last surge of Covid-19 earlier on April 30, 2021.