Deaths, severe illness significantly lower in third wave of COVID-19, says government

(Representative image: Reuters)

India may be seeing a surge in daily COVID-19 infections but deaths and cases of severe illness are significantly lower compared to the second wave because of a high rate of vaccination, the government said on January 20.

Addressing a press conference, Indian Council of Medical Research director-general Dr Balram Bhargava said vaccines had proven beneficial.

"Deaths have considerably reduced due to vaccinations. In this third surge of COVID19, we are currently not witnessing severe illness and deaths due to high vaccination uptake,” he said. Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan were also present in the press conference.

As many as 94 percent of India's adults have been given the first dose, while 72 percent are fully vaccinated.

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In the 15-17 years age group, whose vaccination started on January 3, 52 percent of the youngsters received their first dose.

On vaccines for the under-15, Bhushan said, "As scientific evidence evolves, we will be expanding the coverage of vaccination. We will take a decision on the basis of scientific data".

Dr NK Arora, chairman of the COVID-19 working group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, recently said that the vaccination of children aged between 12 and 14 could begin February-end.

“We want to start vaccinating children between 12 and 14 years from February-end or early March,"  Dr Arora had told Times of India.

As of January 20, India has crossed the 160-crore vaccination dose mark, health minister Mandaviya said.

The decision on market approval for Covaxin and Covishied was yet to be taken by the Drug Controller General of India (DGCI), Bhushan said.

"SEC of CDSCO has recommended to the DCGI that two vaccines be provided market approval. A final decision of the national regulator is yet to be taken,” he said, referring to the subject expert committee of the Central Dugs Standard Control Organisation.

‘States of concern’

Talking about the rising Covid cases in the country, the health secretary said that Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh were among the “states of concern”. Central health teams had been sent to these states and the situation was being continuously reviewed.

India logged 3,17,532 new coronavirus infections, the highest in 249 days, taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,82,18,773, which includes 9,287 cases of the Omicron variant, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on January 20. The active cases rose to 19,24,051, the highest in 234 days.

Eleven states and union territories had more than 50,000 active cases and 515 districts were reporting a weekly case positivity of more than five percent.

"Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, UP, Gujarat, Odisha, Delhi and Rajasthan are among the top 10 states in terms of active cases,” Bhushan said.

In Delhi, bed occupancy or hospitalisation was significantly lower as compared to the second wave that saw people dying for want of oxygen and hospital care.

Upper respiratory tract infection was a common symptom in the 11-18 year age group in the national capital. Around 99 percent of the adult patients in the city were reporting fever, cough and irritation in the throat, the government said.