Union Government on Thursday said that Sikkim, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Himachal Pradesh have administered the first dose of COVID-19 vaccination to 100 per cent of their 18 plus population. Briefing media in New Delhi this evening, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, 16 per cent of the total adult population of this country has been fully vaccinated and 54 per cent of the total adult population of this country has received at least one shot. He said, 18.38 crore vaccine doses were administered last month.
The Secretary said, the average dose per day administered in August is 59.29 lakh and in the last week of the month more than 80 lakh doses per day were administered. He said, from 279 districts that were reporting 100 cases on a daily basis in June this year, the number has come down to 42 districts that are reporting more than 100 cases on a daily basis on 30th of August.
Mr. Bhushan said, Kerala is one state that has more than one lakh active cases. He said, four states Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have 10 thousand to one lakh active cases. The Secretary said, rest of the States and UTs have less than 10 thousand active cases. He said, overall declining trend in weekly positivity observed across India since week ending 10th of May, but have not yet seen end of COVID second wave.
Member Health in NITI Aayog, Dr. V. K. Paul said, people should celebrate festivals at home, follow COVID-Appropriate Behaviour and embrace vaccination.
Director-General of Indian Council of Medical Research Dr. Balram Bhargava said, mass gatherings have to be discouraged and full vaccination should be a prerequisite if attending a gathering is essential. He said, even after two doses of vaccination, people should continue wearing masks. Replying to a media query, Dr Bhargava said, about 300 cases of Delta plus variant of SARS-CoV-2 have been detected in India so far.
(AIR)
