As daily cases cross 4L, states asked to prioritize second dose of vaccine

For Two consecutive days, the country has reported four lakh plus Covid-positive cases. On Friday, 4.14 lakh positive cases were reported while 4.12 lakh people tested positive for the virus on Thursday. Daily new cases have been growing at 1% in the last seven days. The number of deaths on Friday was 3,915.

The union health ministry on Friday advised states to prioritize beneficiaries of the second dose to ensure completion of the recommended vaccination schedule. States have been asked to utilise supplies of the Covid-19 vaccine through the government of India channel in a 70:30 ratio for the second dose and first dose respectively.

The government has till date administered 16.50 crore doses of the Covid-19 vaccine and out of this 13.21 crore were first doses and 3.29 crore were second doses. A total of 11.8 lakh people in the 18 to 44 years age group have received their first doses. Till date, only 3.29 crore people had received two doses.

Health ministry officials expressed concern over the trend of increasing cases in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Odisha and Uttarakhand. At 48.5%, Goa had the highest positivity rate in the country. Haryana, Puducherry and West Bengal had 30% plus rate of positivity. There were 24 states with more than 15% positivity.

Maharashtra was still the number one state with 6.41 lakh active cases followed by Karnataka at 5.17 lakh cases, Kerala at 3.91 lakh and Uttar Pradesh at 2.59 lakh active cases. Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Haryana and Bihar have one lakh plus daily cases. However, Maharashtra was among the states showing a continued decline in daily new cases which had come down from 65,447 on April 26 to 58, 164 on May 7. Delhi, too, was showing decline in daily cases.