India has so far reported over 40,845 cases of mucormycosis or black fungus so far, a majority of which infected the brain and sinuses of covid-19 patients. According to the government data released at the 29th meeting of the high-level group of ministers on covid-19 held virtually on Monday, of the total 40,845 cases, 31,344 cases are rhinocerebral in nature. Rhinocerebral mucormycosis is a rare opportunistic infection of the sinuses, nasal passages, oral cavity, and brain caused by saprophytic fungi.
“Fatality from the infections stands at 3,129. Of the total numbers, 34,940 patients had covid-19 (85.5%), 26,187 (about 64.11%) were co-morbid for diabetes while 21,523 (52.69%) of those infected were on steroids,” said Harsh Vardhan, Union minister of health and family welfare who chaired the GoM. “13,083 patients were in the age group 18-45 (32%), 17,464 were in the age group 45-60 (42%) while 10,082 (24%) patients were 60+ years of age,” he said.
India’s covid-19 cases are gradually coming down, yet the government has maintained that some states continue to be severely impacted. During the meeting, Balram Bhargava, secretary (health research) and director-general India Council of Medical Research (ICMR) cautioned that the second wave of covid-19 has still not subsided as 80 districts in the country have high positivity. “There shouldn’t be any laxity at this stage,” said the ICMR chief.
Active cases continue to be concentrated mainly in Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Odisha which are reporting growth rates more than the national covid-19 growth rate. While 19 states are reporting fatality figures in single-digit (less than 10), four states of Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are reporting more than a hundred deaths daily, the government data showed.
In the last 24 hours, India recorded 46,148 cases, causing the active caseload to decline significantly to 5,72,994 in the country. “The recovery rate has been steadily increasing and stands at 96.80% today. 58,578 recoveries were registered in the last 24 hours. Today is the 46th day in succession where our daily recoveries outnumbered new cases. Our case fatality rate has been 1.30%, daily positivity rate at 2.94% and weekly positivity rate also stands at 2.94% which has been consistently below 5% for 21 days now,” said Harsh Vardhan.
The Union health minister said that India has overtaken the US in the total number of covid vaccine doses administered so far. The US started vaccinating against covid-19 on 14 December 2020 whereas the drive was launched in India on 16 January 2021. Under the new vaccination policy, the Centre is procuring and supplying free of cost 75% of the vaccines being produced by the vaccine manufacturers in the country to states and union territories.
“Till today morning (8 am), we have administered more than 32 crores vaccine doses in various categories,” said the Union health minister. These include 1,01,98,257 healthcare workers (HCWs) who have taken the first dose and 72,07,617 HCWs who have taken the second dose, 1,74,42,767 frontline workers (FLWs) (1st dose), 93,99,319 FLWs (2nd dose), and 8,46,51,696 for 18-44 years of age group (1st dose) and 19,01,190 for 2nd dose. 8,71,11,445 for over 45 years old to 60 years old (1st Dose), 1,48,12,349 for over 45 years old to 60 years old (2nd dose), 6,75,29,713 for above 60 years (1st Dose) and 2,34,08,944 for above 60 years (2nd Dose)," he said.
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