'No difference in per cent of death between first wave & second wave', says ICMR DG Dr Balram Bhargava

Mumbai, April 19: Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan are among the 10 states that account for 78.58 per cent of the new COVID-19 cases reported in a day, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday. "We have had tremendous amount of laxity, COVID19 inappropriate behaviour and various unidentified mutation, of them some are of concern - UK, Brazilian and South African variants, which have been demonstrated to have higher transmissibility", said ICMR predisent Balram Bhargava.

 

 

"We have also found a double mutant in India but the higher transmissibility of this is not established", he added while in an exclusive interview to one of the news agencies. "Higher requirement of oxygen was found in this wave. There is no difference in the percent of death between the first wave and second wave from the data we have", he added.

 

 

India reported 2,73,810 new COVID-19 cases and 1,619 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to data from the Union Health Ministry. The total cases in the country now stand at 1,50,61,919. There are 19,29,329 active cases in the country at present while 1,29,53,821 people have recovered from the disease. The death toll is at 1,78, 769. As many as 12,38,52,566 people have been vaccinated so far.

 

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Meanwhile, with shortage in supplies being flagged across the country, Delhi Sunday joined the growing list of states that are scrambling to ensure adequate availability of oxygen for COVID patients as the country continued to witness a rise in coronavirus cases. The Centre, however, placed the onus of tackling the situation on state governments, with Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal saying that they “should keep demand under control”.

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