These 10 districts have the most number of active COVID-19 cases: Health Secretary

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Tuesday held a press conference on the current situation of Covid-19. pandemic.

On Tuesday, March 30, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan addressed a press conference and shared all the information related to the present scenario of Covid-19 in the country.

Health Secretary shared the names of ten districts in the country which have the highest number of active Covid-19 cases. He said, “There are 10 districts across the country that have the most number of active cases – Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur, Thane, Nashik, Aurangabad, Bengaluru Urban, Nanded, Delhi and Ahmednagar. 8 out of top 10 districts are only of Maharashtra,” as quoted by ANI.

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He further said that Covid-19 cases had started increasing from July, 2020, and reached the max point at mid of Sept, 2020, after which it started declining continuously till mid of Feb, 2021and since mid-Feb onwards, we have seen an increase in cases. He also added, “Weekly national average positivity rate is 5.65%, while Maharashtra has a weekly average of 23%, Punjab has a weekly average of 8.82%, Chhattisgarh 8%, Madhya Pradesh 7.82%, Tamil Nadu 2.50%, Karnataka 2.45%, Gujarat 2.2% and Delhi 2.04%.”

Health Secretary has blamed states for not increasing the rate of testing with incresing number of cases. He said, “We spoke to representatives of these states. We told them why are they not increasing testing when cases are increasing. It’s essential to increase testing with focus on RT-PCR tests. Rapid Antigen tests be used for screening tests in densely populated areas,” as quoted by ANI.

Health Secretary has also blamed states for not monitoring the isolation of Covid positive patients. He said, “We found that isolation isn’t taking place in most states, people are being told to isolate at home. But it’s to be monitored if they’re actually doing it. If they can’t, they must be quarantined institutionally. Delhi was able to bring numbers under control through it.”

Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan also announced an update on vaccination drive. He said, “From April 1, all people above 45 yrs of age will be eligible for vaccination. Advance appointment can be booked through cowin.gov.in. If you don’t want to do this, you can go to your nearest vaccination centre after 3 pm & go for on-site registration,” quotes ANI.

“Those who want to go for on-site registration are requested to go to their nearest vaccination centre after 3 pm with any identity document. Identity documents include people with Aadhaar Card & voter ID, also bank passbook, passport, ration card,” Health Secretary further added.

Bhushan also shared information on the the new Covid-19 variant which is detected in India. He said there are 807 UK variants, 47 South African variants and 1 Brazilian variant which have been tested in India.