85% decline in daily Covid cases since highest reported peak on May 7: Govt

There has been an almost 85 per cent decline in daily COVID-19 cases since the highest reported peak on May 7 and currently, there are 20 states and UTs where active cases are less than 5,000, the government said on Tuesday.

On the Delta plus variant of Covid, the government said that it has been around since March and it is not yet a variant of concern.

"We have to learn more about it and track its progress," it said.

During the second wave of the pandemic, the government said, about 11.62 per cent cases were seen in the below 20 years age group, while it was 11.31 per cent during the first wave.

It also said that a sharp decline of 78 per cent has been noted since the highest reported weekly Covid case positivity rate of 21.4 per cent, which was recorded between May 4 and 10 during the second wave.
 

"We are witnessing a continued reduction in daily cases after 75 days which indicates an overall decline in infection rate," Joint Secretary, Health, Lav Agarwal, said.

In the last 24 hours, India reported 86,490 new cases, while on May 7, daily cases were at 414,000, but had come down to 267,000 on May 19 and dropped below the 200,000 mark subsequently.

"Observing the decline of Covid cases per day, we have analysed that India has witnessed around 85 per cent reduction in daily cases, which is a big development for all of us but we have to continue work on strict Covid behaviour," Agarwal added.

According to the Health Ministry, daily Covid positivity rate has declined by 33 per cent.

Agarwal also said that the country is seeing a sharp decline in active cases in the last few days, amounting to around 65 per cent. On May 10, active cases were at an average of 3.74 million, but now have reduced to less than 1 million, which account for 2.9 per cent of total cases.

Cumulative recovery rate has now reached 95.6 per cent, with recoveries outnumbering infections in all states, he said.

As many as 366 districts across the country have reported a marked decline in cases over the past weeks, while there are 20 states and UTs where active Covid cases are less than 5,000.