The rising spur in coronavirus cases in India for the last seven days has raised serious concern for an outbreak of a second wave in the country. According to the health ministry data till Friday in the morning, 39,726 new covid cases and 154 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours.
The new case loads are spurring uncontrollably since November last year. Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have registered more than 79.54 percent new Covid cases for the ninth consecutive day. As a result, parts of Maharashtra and Punjab have declared nigh curfew along with strict vigilance to Covid protocol norms. The rising cases in Gujarat has also forced the state government to shut down schools as a need of the hour. Maharashtra alone on Thursday crossed 25k mark, making it the highest single day spike in new corona cases, followed by Punjab and Karnataka.
The galloping cases of coronavirus after 100 days has raised eyebrows of the centre and the health ministry. Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a virtual meeting early this week asserting to the states to propose stringent steps regarding the rising cases and urged to roadmap the Corona pockets and perform rapid antigen RT-PCR tests. Modi even drew attention on wastage of Covid Vaccines among few states.
Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have recorded the highest percentage of vaccine wastage of 17.6 percent and 11.6 percent respectively. Meanwhile, UP has wasted 9.4 percent, Karnataka 6.9 percent and J&K 6.6 percent of coronavirus vaccines. The tally of wastage is extensively higher than the overall Indian average of 6.5 percent.
In India open vial wastage of vaccines is occurring in a rapid rate. As per inbound medical rules, whenever a vial (cylindrical tubes, used for storing liquid medicines) is opened, it needs to be used within four hours. If the doses is not used within the prescribed limit, it needs to be discarded. In the case of Covaxin, it contains 20 doses per vial and Covishield 10 doses. The rate of vaccine wastage is occurring due to non-cooperation of the beneficiaries. Despite getting registered for the inoculation, beneficiaries are not turning out at the vaccination centres.
With the rising cases of coronavirus in a week, states like MP, Delhi and Haryana are also coming under the suspected radar. The frequent negligence and absurdity of the people in avoiding masks and social distancing is getting reflected in terms of the spiking cases. Total cases till now stands to 1,15,14,331; Active cases 2,71,282; Recoveries 1,10,83,679; Total Fatality 1,59,370 and Total vaccinated 3,93,39,817.
Rituparna Dutta