COVID-19: Two States Account For Nearly 42% Of India's 28,252 Mucormycosis Cases

As many as 28,252 cases of Mucormycosis or black fungus have been reported from 28 states and UTs, with a majority of them having been reported in Maharashtra and Gujarat, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Monday said 86 per cent of 28,252 cases have a history of Covid-19 and 62.3 per cent with a history of diabetes. Maharashtra has reported the maximum number of mucormycosis cases (6,339) followed by Gujarat (5,486), he said after chairing the 28th meeting of the high-level Group of Ministers (GoM) on Covid-19 via video conferencing, a health ministry statement said.

AP

About third wave

V K Paul, member (Health), NITI Aayog presented a brief snapshot of the country's vaccination status, preparedness for pediatric Covid-19 care, and the way forward to prevent the third wave of the infection, at the conference. He said that India took 141 days to reach the 23 crore-mark in terms of cumulative doses administered, which remains the second-highest in the world after the US, which did the same in 134 days.

"India is also one of the world's fastest countries in terms of the number of doses administered so far. Out of 88.7 crore people who have been administered at least one dose globally, India accounts for 17.9 crore, which is 20.2% of the global coverage," Dr Paul maintained. He also remarked that the country is fully prepared to deal with pediatric Covid-19 care, but caution remains the key.

PTI

About vaccine doses

Vardhan noted that till Monday morning, 23,27,86,482 vaccine doses were administered to citizens in various categories. Talking specifically about the 18-44 age group, the first dose has been given to 2,86,18,514 people, he said. "As of today, over 1.4 crore doses are still available with the states," he said. About other categories, the minister noted that first doses have been given to 6,06,75,796 people in the above 60 category' and 7,10,44,966 in the 45-59 age group.

AFP

About COVID testing

On the testing front, he stated that 36,63,34,111 Covid tests have so far has conducted and the laboratories for testing purposes have also gone up to 2,624 in the country. "Daily positivity rate has also been declining and is at 6.34% and even though this is less than 10% positivity rate for 14 consecutive days, there still are 15 states where the daily positivity rate is greater than 10%," he was quoted as saying in the statement.