The Health and Family Welfare Ministry said that the active cases of the coronavirus are continuously declining and it is less than 2.7 lakh in the country.

The positivity rate during the last week stood at only 2.25 percent. Briefing media in New Delhi, Health Secretary, Rajesh Bhushan said  Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium labs have started genome sequencing of the new variants reported from the UK.

He informed that prior to the news of the UK variants came in, India had done roughly five thousand genome sequences across different labs. He said, India is significantly increasing that number and would be working in a coordinated manner.
 
DG, ICMR Dr. Balram Bhargava said it is important to not put too much immune pressure on the virus. He advised to maintain judicious use of therapies saying that those therapies should not be used whose benefits are not well established otherwise it will put pressure on the virus.

 
Niti Aayog, Member (Health), Dr. V.K. Paul said the major population is still susceptible to COVID19 infection especially in the current cold weather. He said, UK variant has traveled to several other countries and also to India. He advised the people to remain careful.