New Covid-19 wave unlikely but India not in endemic stage yet

TN Health Secretary inaugurates sixth mega vaccination campaign in Chennai; MP government will extend five-day week arrangement in offices till March 2022

India is unlikely to see a Covid wave like the devastating second one, unless there is a new immune escaping variant but the lower number of cases does not necessarily mean the pandemic is now endemic, several experts have said. Giving hope and also injecting a note of caution as the festive season peaks with Diwali just days ahead, they said a dipping Covid-19 graph is only part of the picture and pointed to factors such as the mortality rate, the need for a larger vaccination cover and examples of countries such as UK where numbers are again rising.

Lauding the milestone of 100 crore Covid vaccine doses in India, virologist Shahid Jameel said vaccination rates have improved significantly but more needs to be done. “I am not sure we are in the endemic state yet. As we celebrate this (100 crore) landmark, there is still some distance to go. We are going towards endemicity, but are not there yet,” Jameel, a visiting professor at Ashoka University in Haryana said.

Mega vax campaign

Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan inaugurated the sixth mega Covid-19 vaccination campaign to be held throughout the state on Saturday in Chennai. This campaign will be conducted besides the daily vaccine and looks forward to providing vaccines to those who could not get vaccinated during the weekdays. “We have set up 50,000 mega camps in addition to our daily camps. There are a lot of people who are not able to get vaccinated on the weekdays so we are trying to make up for that through this campaign and give them a chance to come here and get vaccinated. We urge everyone to get vaccinated, especially older people,” he said.

PM talks to manufacturers

Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with the seven Indian manufacturers of the Covid-19 vaccine on Saturday. During the interaction, the PM took stock of the experiences of the manufacturers as well as discussed various issues like furthering vaccine research.

5-day week in govt offices

The Madhya Pradesh government has decided to extend the arrangement of five-day week in its offices across the state till March 2022 in view of the pandemic. A notification in this regard was issued by the general administration department of the state government.

S’pore welcomes Indian travellers

Singapore on Saturday announced the removal of India and five other South Asian countries from its travel restriction list as the island-state continues to adjust border measures in response to the global Covid-19 situation. All travellers with a 14-day travel history to Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will be allowed to enter or transit through Singapore from Wednesday, the health ministry said. However, travellers will be subjected to the tightest of border measures.

3,41,59,562
Total number of cases in the country as of today

4,53,708
Total no. of deaths due to the virus in India

3,35,32,126
Patients recovered and discharged in India as of today

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