Coronavirus in India News Live: Is India ready for third wave? Confused messaging from top add to conundrum

A steady decline in new COVID-19 cases has been recorded in India for the last 20 days. Twenty-four states have also reported decline in active COVID-19 cases since the last week, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday.

Covid-19 Cases and Deaths in India Today Live Count: As the world tries to vaccinate the younger population with the US starting the inoculation programmes specifically focused on the children, the Niti Aayog has said that the WHO has not recommended the need to vaccinate the young. This was something the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said on Twitter. At a time when the health experts are talking about the probability of the third wave of the coronavirus impacting the kids more severely, this confusing messaging from the top may hamper the policymaking for the future. The Centre must clearly spell out the agenda and roadmap for the next quarter if we don’t want to see a repeat of what happened in April.

On Thursday, the government said the second COVID-19 wave in India is on the “downswing” and hoped this trend will be sustained even when curbs are systematically relaxed. The Centre also highlighted that the number of active cases in the country is “still very high”. Amid a fall in the number of daily cases and some improvement in the status of Covid bed, medical oxygen, and medicine, the Home Ministry also issued fresh guidelines on Covid management. It directed the states/UTs to continue the ongoing Covid-19 guidelines till June 30 and asked them to go for intensive and local containment measures in districts with a high number of cases to check the spread of the disease.

As states spar with the Centre of vaccine stock and vaccine wastage data, India is losing out precious time for preparing for the war ahead. Here are the latest news, views, updates on state-wise lockdowns and all vaccine research from India and around the world: