The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on Tuesday said that no states have reported any deaths due to the oxygen crisis during the second Covid wave.

In a press conference held here on Tuesday, Health Ministry Joint Secretary Luv Agrawal said, “Only one state has till now reported a suspected death due to oxygen crisis during the second Covid wave. No other states have reported deaths due to oxygen crisis.”

Luv Agrawal added, “States were asked if there have been oxygen-related deaths. According to reports we have got till now, one state has referred to a suspected case, other states have not said if there have been any oxygen-related deaths”.

Speaking on the current pandemic situation, Agrawal said, “We have achieved a substantial decline in daily Covid caseload. India was reporting around 40,000 daily Covid cases from last some days, but we have seen a major cut in the daily cases from last three days. Today 28,204 new cases of Covid-19 have been reported which is the lowest in the last 147 days.”

Agrawal added that out of these total cases, around 51.51 percent have been reported from Kerala. “There are a total 37 districts presently in India where we have observed increasing trends of daily Covid cases which includes 11 from Kerala, 7 from Tamil Nadu, and 6 from Himachal Pradesh.”

Around 44 districts have over a 10 percent positivity rate. Out of the total active caseload at present, Kerala contributes 43.77 per cent and has 1,77,091 active cases. At the same time, Maharashtra has 18.48 per cent of active cases and stands at 74,944 total active cases.” Both states contribute over 62 percent of total active cases.

Talking about Kerala’s Covid trends, NCDC Director Dr. Sujeet Kumar Singh said that the demarcation line between rural and urban is not as visible in Kerala as it is in north India which also contributed to transmitting the infection in the state. He said, “They stressed more on passive surveillance to detect new cases but not to cut the chain of transmission”. Another reason, he said that contributed to the infection, is the prevalence of diabetes which is over 30 percent in the state.

Niti Ayog Member Dr. V K Paul said that we can achieve herd immunity only through vaccination to prevent transmission.