Union Health Ministry has said that a consistent decline in daily active cases of Covid -19 and a further improvement in recovery from the infection is being noticed in the country. Addressing media in New Delhi last evening, Secretary in the Health Ministry Rajesh Bhushan said that continuous decline in daily cases is being noticed since India reported a peak with nearly four lakh 14 thousand cases on 7th May. He said, now almost 90 per cent decline in such cases has been seen since the highest reported peak in daily new cases.

Mr Bhushan also informed that till the 4th of May, there were 531 districts in the country which were reporting over 100 cases daily, now the number has come down to 135 districts.

The Secretary said, till 10th May there were 37 lakh active cases in the country and after that, a continuous decline in such cases were noticed and now it has come down to the level of 6.62 lakh showing a decline by 82 per cent. Mr Bhushan said that the country is also witnessing a consistent increase in the recovery rate and now it has reached 96.5 per cent.

He said, currently 18 lakh tests of COVID -19 are being conducted on a daily basis as the cases are on a decline. Mr Bhushan said, so far 29 crores 16 lakh doses of Covid vaccines have been administered in the country.

In reply to a query, the Health Secretary said the Delta variant is found in 80 nations, including India. He said it is considered a ‘variant of concern’. He added that Delta Plus has been found in nine nations. These are the US, UK, Portugal, Switzerland, Japan, Poland, Nepal, China and Russia. Twenty-two cases of the Delta Plus variant have been found in India.

Mr Bhushan said 16 of the 22 cases of Delta Plus variant have been found in Ratnagiri and Jalgaon of Maharashtra and few cases in Kerala and Madhya Pradesh.