Recovery cases have been increasing in the country since May 3 and 187 districts have shown a continued decline in cases since the last 2 weeks.

Addressing the media, Lav Agarwal, Union Health Ministry, Joint Secretary said that the overall country-wide positivity rate has declined from 21.95 per cent to 21.02 per cent in the last one week.

For the past 3 days, there is plateauing in death cases as well while there are 12 states with more than 1 lakh active cases.

10 states with 25 per cent COVID-19 positivity rate

There are 10 states where the COVID-19 positivity rate is 25 per cent or more.

So far, 17.72 crore doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.

Saying that stringent containment is the key to break the chain of the virus, the Joint Secretary gave the example of Chhattisgarh’s Raipur where the positivity rate had reached 54.6 per cent earlier but after strict containment measures, the cases are controlled the positivity rate now stands at 19 per cent.

Nearly 18 crore doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in India. In the US, the number stands around 26 crores. So, India stands in the third position, after China, said Dr. VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog.

All vaccine doses procured by GoI and made available to States/UTs free of cost or procured by state governments directly are available entirely for vaccination within the states, said Paul.

“States are given an advance indication of free vaccine that would be available from GoI to them for next 15 days as well as full month’s supply of vaccines that the states and private hospitals can procure directly from manufacturers. Such advance intimation to States/UTs facilitates easy procurement and effective planning by State for administering vaccine doses,” he said.

The sale of Russia’s Sputnik V will begin next week

He further said that Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine has arrived in India.

“I’m happy to say that we’re hopeful that it’ll be available in the market next week. We’re hopeful that the sale of the limited supply that has come from there (Russia), will begin next week,” he added.

Further supply will also follow. Its production will begin in July and it is estimated that 15.6 crore doses will be manufactured in that period.

Overall, 216 crore doses of vaccines will be manufactured in India between August-December and there should be no doubt that vaccines will be available for all, said Paul. 

Dr. Paul said that the GoI is in touch with Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J manufacturers.

“We kept asking them if they wanted to supply to India. But they told us they will respond accordingly to the availability by 2021. The talks are still on with them. We are hoping that they will supply and produce in India,” he added.

He also said that the government is willing to invite other companies to take the formula of Covaxin for production.

On accusation coming from the Delhi government over the supply of Covaxin, Paul said that the national capital got the vaccine from 3 channels.

Our job is to facilitate the procurement. We refute the charges there is pressure on anybody to give the vaccine to any particular state, he added.