After India reported six cases of the mutant virus which had was reported in the UK, the Indian government said the vaccines will work against the variants detected in the UK and South Africa.
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“There is no evidence that the current vaccines will fail to protect against the coronavirus variants,” K. Vijay Raghavan, principal scientific advisor to the Indian government, said.
“Prior to the news of the UK variant came in, we had done roughly 5,000 genome sequences across labs. Now we will be significantly increasing that number and would be working in a coordinated manner,” Rajesh Bhushan, the health secretary said.
The health secretary informed that the daily new coronavirus cases had dropped to less than 17,000 after six months with daily deaths going down to less than 300 after six months.
The Rajesh Bhushan asserted that deaths were found to have occurred in 60 years & above age group and 70 per cent of the deaths had occurred to males.
The health secretary said 63 per cent of total cases were reported in males & 37 per cent cases in females with 8 per cent cases reported below the age of 17 years and 13 per cent in 18-25 yrs age group. The health secretary also informed that 39 per cent people were infected in the in 26-44 age group with 26 pr cent in 45-60 category and 14 per cent in the above 60-year category.
“Active cases in the country are less than 2.7 lakhs and is declining. Positivity rate in the country during the last week stood at only 2.25 per cent,” Bhushan informed.
ICMR, meanwhile said it was important not to put too much “immune pressure” on the virus.
“We have to maintain judicious use of therapies which are going to benefit. If the benefit isn’t established, we shouldn’t use those therapies otherwise it will put pressure on the virus and it will tend to mutate more,” he said.
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