Second wave still not over, no one is safe until entire country is safe: Dr Paul

Niti Aayog member, health, Dr VK Paul on Friday cautioned that the second wave of COVID-19 is not over yet even though India is seeing a decline in the number of fresh cases.

"The second wave of COVID-19 is not over yet and central teams have been sent to problem states. We are not safe until the entire nation is safe," Dr Paul said.

Expressing his views on the third wave of COVID-19, Dr Paul said, "That is not in our hands. We must have all the preparation regarding infrastructure in rural areas, arrangement for children, ICU beds, medicines etc. But our attempt would be to stall any new outbreak. And if we are disciplined, then this wave will not come."

Dr Paul said a recent study from PGI Chandigarh on police personnel showed that vaccine efficacy in those with a single dose was 92 per cent and those with two doses was 98 per cent.

"The projection that 216 crore doses would be available, from August-December was an optimistic, aspirational projection based on what our manufacturers had told us," he said.

He further added that the cases of the 'Delta plus' variant of the coronavirus in the country have risen to 56 across the 12 states.

India saw a single-day rise of 46,617 new coronavirus infections, taking the tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,04,58,251, while the national recovery rate has crossed 97 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.

The Centre on Friday sent multi-disciplinary teams to six states - Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Manipur - that are reporting a high number of cases. The two-member team comprised a clinician and a public health expert.

( With inputs from ANI )

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor