Less than 2 percent of the total population in India has been affected by COVID-19 so far and 98 percent of the population is still susceptible or vulnerable to the infection, the government said on Tuesday.
“Despite the high number of cases reported so far, we have been able to contain the spread to under 2 pc of population,” said Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal.
The government said that of the total population in India, 1.8 percent has been affected by COVID-19 so far and 98 percent of the population is still susceptible or vulnerable to the infection.
The government said a continued decline has been noted in active cases in the last 15 days. From 17.13 percent of the total caseload reported on May 3, it has reduced to 13.3 percent, it added.
Eight states have more than 1 lakh active COVID-19 cases and 22 states have more than 15 percent case positivity, it said.
Maharashtra, UP, Delhi, Bihar, MP and Chhattisgath have shown a decline in COVID-19 cases and a decline in positivity, the government said.
There are 199 districts showing a continued decline in COVID-19 cases and positivity since the last two weeks, it said.
Meanwhile, India saw a record 4,529 fatalities due to coronavirus in a single day on Wednesday, pushing the COVID-19 death toll to 2,83,248, while 2.67 lakh fresh cases were recorded, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.
With a total of 2,67,334 fresh infections, India’s total tally of cases climbed to 2,54,96,330. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,19,86,363 while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.11 percent, the data stated.
According to the ICMR, 32,03,01,177 samples have been tested up to May 18 with 20,08,296 samples being tested on Tuesday.
(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context)
