Third Covid wave warnings treated casually like weather update: Govt

Gross violations of Covid-appropriate behaviour are being observed in several parts of country which can nullify gains made so far, says govt

The government on Tuesday expressed concern over the "gross violations" of Covid-appropriate behaviour in several parts of the country and said this can nullify the gains made so far.

Addressing a press conference on the pandemic situation in the country, Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the health ministry, said people talk about the third wave as a "weather update" but fail to understand that adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour or the lack of it is what will prevent or cause any future waves.

"We would like to request to everyone -- when we talk about the third wave (of Covid-19), we are taking it as a weather update and not understanding its seriousness and our responsibilities associated with it," said Agarwal.

NITI Aayog Member (Health) Dr V K Paul, who was also present at the press conference, said globally, a third wave of COVID-19 is being seen and called on people to make efforts to ensure that it does not happen in India.

Agarwal said approximately 73.4 per cent of the new COVID-19 cases reported so far in July were from Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

He said 55 districts reported Covid case positivity rate of more than 10 per cent in the week ending July 13.

Central teams have been deputed to Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Meghalaya, Odisha, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura to support them in COVID-19 management, he added.

India's COVID-19 death toll climbed to 4,10,784 on Tuesday with 2,020 new deaths recorded after Madhya Pradesh reconciled its fatality data while 31,443 new coronavirus cases pushed the infection tally to 3,09,05,819, according to Union health ministry data.