Covid-19 Wrap-up: Positivity rate dips but norms violation a cause of concern

The decline in number of new Covid-19 cases and deaths in most of the states gave the nation a sigh of relief

In a positive trend, India has been witnessing a consistent decline in the Covid-19's weekly positivity rate, which has now fallen to 2.61 per cent.

Although the second wave is still not over, the decline in the number of new cases and deaths in most of the states has given the nation a sigh of relief. PM Modi recently said the surge in coronavirus does not happen on its own but due to violation of Covid norms, and hence, any carelessness at this point can nullify all the gains till date.

As the number of new Covid cases remained below the 40,000 mark, as per the latest bulletin, India recorded 499 deaths, which is the lowest in over three months. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,03,08,456 and the case fatality rate stands at 1.33 per cent.

Witnessing a steady decline in new cases, Karnataka has decided to relax the night curfew hours from the existing 9 pm to 6 am, to 10 pm to 5 am. The state is also going to reopen colleges with 50 per cent capacity from Monday.

Despite the improving scenario, the Delta variant, which accounted for 80 per cent of the new cases in the devastating second wave, still remains a concern. The Delta variant has mutations in its spike protein, which helps it bind to the ACE2 receptors present on the surface of the cells more firmly, making it more transmissible and capable of evading the body's immunity, Dr N K Arora, co-chair of Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium said.

Concerns over Tokyo Games are rising as more positive Covid cases from the event were detected. Three more Covid-19 cases were detected on Monday, taking the total number of cases to 58.

In another worrisome development, a commonly prescribed antibiotic for Covid-19, azithromycin is no more effective than a placebo in preventing the disease among non-hospitalised patients, and may in fact increase their chance of hospitalisation, a study has found.

However, another recent study gave out a positive outcome as it stated India's Covishield vaccine showed 63 per cent overall efficacy rate and 81 per cent efficacy in preventing severe Covid infections in fully-vaccinated people.

Meanwhile, over one-third of the country's eligible population has received the first dose of the vaccine. While small states with fewer residents did particularly well, eight bigger and more populous states gave the first dose to more than 40 per cent of their target population – Telangana (49 per cent), Gujarat (48 per cent), Karnataka (46 per cent), Rajasthan (45 per cent), Delhi (45 per cent), Haryana (42 per cent), Chhattisgarh (42 per cent) and Kerala (42 per cent).

Congratulating people who have been vaccinated, PM Modi has named them "Baahubali". Modi said that 40 crore citizens have got the jabs, and added that the only way to defeat Covid is by getting vaccinated.

As Covid not only claimed lives but destroyed many livelihoods as well, people are still fearful that the pandemic will further affect their income. As many as 79 per cent of over 70,000 surveyed believe their household earnings will decline in the current financial year (2021-22). Nearly 50 per cent of respondents expect a decline in their savings, stated the survey, conducted by LocalCircles across 382 districts of India. A major chunk of respondents (43 per cent) was from Tier-1 cities.