People Talking Of Covid Third Wave Like It's 'Weather Update': Health Ministry

Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's expressing concerns about people throwing to tourists spots without masks, the health ministry on Tuesday warned that "gross violations" of Covid-appropriate behaviour could nullify the gains the country has made so far in terms of tackling the pandemic.

Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the health ministry addressed a press conference in the national capital regarding the current situation of the pandemic in India. In the course of the address, Agarwal accused people of talking about the pandemic's third wave like it was a "weather update". He added that many were failing to understand that adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour or the lack of it is what will prevent or cause any future waves.

The press conference came after PM Modi chaired a virtual meeting with Chief Ministers of 

‘There’s a need to stay alert and act fast to check further spread of virus,’ PM Modi said at the meeting.

NITI Aayog Member (Health) Dr V K Paul, who was also present at the press conference, said globally, a third wave of COVID-19 is being seen and called on people to make efforts to ensure that it does not happen in India.

Agarwal said approximately 73.4 per cent of the new COVID-19 cases reported so far in July were from Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

He said 55 districts reported Covid case positivity rate of more than 10 per cent in the week ending July 13.

Central teams have been deputed to Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Meghalaya, Odisha, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura to support them in COVID-19 management, he added.

India's COVID-19 death toll climbed to 4,10,784 on Tuesday with 2,020 new deaths recorded after Madhya Pradesh reconciled its fatality data while 31,443 new coronavirus cases pushed the infection tally to 3,09,05,819, according to Union health ministry data. 

(With inputs from PTI)