People treating Covid third wave predictions as 'weather update', says govt

New Delhi, July 13: The government on Tuesday expressed concern over the continuous 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.

Here are some of the important takeaways from the press briefing:

• 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.
• 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
• Besides northeastern states, the teams have been sent to Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Kerala & Odisha, as they were reflecting a growth trajectory

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.

(with PTI inputs)