Coronavirus: India reported 16,432 new cases of Covid-19 with 252 deaths in the last 24 hours. (Archive)
New Delhi:
COVID-19 has affected men more than women in India, where 70 percent of the roughly 1.47 lakhs of people who died since the national outbreak in January were men.
The data was shared by the Health Ministry on Tuesday when it briefed the nation on its fight against the coronavirus amid the detection of the UK’s most aggressive variant in India.
“Seventy percent of all deaths due to COVID-19 have been reported among men. Forty-five percent of deaths have been reported in people under the age of 60,” said Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, giving an idea of age and gender distribution of the total cases.
“Sixty-three percent of the total cases were among men … 52 percent of the cases were in the 18-44 age group, but only 11 percent of the deaths were reported in this segment. “, said.
According to the Ministry of Health, daily deaths in the country, among the lowest per million in the world, have dropped to less than 300 per day, active cases are at 2.7 lakh after six months, and cumulative positivity is 6.02 percent.
As the Health Ministry shared the significant progress made to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease in India, it also shared that the UK coronavirus mutation, “70 percent more infectious” than the previous one, has been detected in at least six travelers. that landed in the country.
“It is important to remember that it is easy to fight a virus or a new strain in the beginning, before there are multiple chains of transmission,” the center said while sequencing the genome of all Covid-positive foreign returnees between 9 and 9 December. 22 required.
The “70 percent most transmissible” mutation has emerged in India just as the country posted its smallest daily increase in cases in more than six months, fueling fears of another wave of infections that could lead to further lockdowns in states and UT.
NITI Ayog member Dr VK Paul said restrictions such as night curfews may be imposed as the majority population is still susceptible to COVID-19 infection in this cold climate.
“The UK variant (coronavirus) has traveled to several other countries and also India. It may have its own route and we have to be very careful. It cannot be neglected,” he said.
However, the center said there is no evidence that vaccines developed against Sars-CoV-2 do not protect against newer Covid strains from the UK and South Africa.
Experts have suggested, based on studying the structure of the new strain, that 90% of the structure of the virus remains the same and that existing vaccines should remain effective.
Globally, there are more than 8.1 billion cases of coronavirus, of which 1.02 billion are in India, the second most affected after the United States. The new tensions threaten the country’s recovery from the pandemic and the resulting economic turmoil. To protect the progress made, the Center has said it would study the genomic sequence of the new coronavirus more rigorously, as a mutation could also appear locally.
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