Second wave of coronavirus not yet over in India, says health ministry

Second coronavirus wave is not yet over in India as there are still 75 districts with more than 10 per cent prevalence of virus, 92 districts with 5-10 per cent prevalence, the government said on Friday.

Addressing a briefing on the coronavirus situation in the country, health ministry officials said around 48 Delta plus variant cases were detected from 45,000 samples sequenced so far in India. Maharashtra has the highest number of cases at 20.

"Proportion of coronavirus cases with variants of concern have risen from 10.31 per cent in May, 2021 to 51 per cent on June 20, 2021," officials further said.

"90 per cent of cases in India are being driven by B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant," the said.

The government said that both 19 vaccines -- Covishield and Covaxin -- work against variants of the SARS-CoV-2 --- Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta.

When it came to the Delta plus variant, the government said that laboratory testing is going on to determine the vaccine efficacy.

On the issue of vaccinating children, ICMR chief Balram Bhargava said that more data is needed before moving to inoculate kids.

There is only one country that is giving vaccine to children at the moment. Whether very small children will ever need vaccine, is still a question. Till such time, we have more data on vaccination of children, we won't be in a position to vaccinate them at large, he said.