Centre: 'No evidence of presence of South Africa variant of coronavirus in India till now'

Niti Aayog member Dr VK Paul on Tuesday asserted that India is free from South Africa variant of COVID-19 so far. He stated that no case of this rapidly spread variant of COVID-19 found in India until now. While addressing the press conference, Dr Paul said that the registered South Africa Covid-19 variant spreads faster, hence, it is under the watch of Indian authorities. As per the evaluation made till Monday, February 8, this variant is not present in the country. 

India is free from SA Covid-19 variant

During his briefing, Paul acknowledged that the country has improved the situation and lauded the progress of the coronavirus vaccination drive. He said, "It is remarkable that no death has been reported due to Covid-19 in Delhi, in the last 24 hours. We can confidently say that the strategy to implement vaccination programme and the experience of vaccination is now consistently, very highly rated by people."

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India's Covid-19 vaccination drive

While addressing media, along with Dr Paul, Union Health Ministry, Secretary, Rajesh Bhushan also spoke about the administration of the second dose of vaccine. The second vaccination drive will begin from February 13. He also informed that 97% people received positive results from the coronavirus vaccines (covishield and covaxin). Bhushan informed 63,10,194 beneficiaries including healthcare and frontline workers have been vaccinated with the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine so far.

"Active cases are only 3.12 per cent of the total cases. Active cases are less than 1.50 lakh and declining. There are 15 states and Union Territories (UT) that have not reported deaths in the last 24 hours. There are seven states and UTs that have not reported deaths in the last three weeks. A total of 55 per cent decline in average daily COVID-19 deaths have been reported in the last five weeks, he added. 

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