Full vaccination prerequisite for festive gatherings; second Covid wave not over yet: Govt

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In a bid to address concerns looming around a possible third wave of Covid-19 infections during the upcoming festive season, the Union government on Thursday said that mass gatherings should be avoided and full vaccination should be a prerequisite for essential gatherings.

Despite declining positivity rate, the second wave of Covid-19 is not over yet, the Centre warned and encouraged people to get jabs, follow Covid-appropriate behaviour.

India reported 47,092 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, according to health ministry’s data released Thursday morning. The total recoveries across the country stood at 3,20,28,825, and 35,181 patients recovered during the last 24 hours. Besides, about 300 cases of delta plus variant of SARS-CoV-2 have been detected in India so far.

As many as 39 districts in the country reported over 10% weekly Covid positivity rate for the week ending August 31, while in 38 districts it was between 5 and 10%, the government said.

It asserted that 16% of India’s adult population have received both the doses of COVID-19 vaccine while 54% have been administered at least the first dose.

India’s cumulative vaccination coverage crossed 66 Crore landmark on September 1. With the administration of over 81 lakh vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, the country’s Covid-19 vaccination coverage has surpassed the cumulative figure of 66.30 crore, according to the health ministry.

The testing capacity across the country is being continuously expanded. The last 24 hours saw a total of 16,84,441 tests being conducted. India has so far conducted over 52.48 crore cumulative tests.

While testing capacity has been enhanced across the country, weekly positivity rate is below 3% for the last 69 days now. The daily positivity rate stands at 2.80%. The daily positivity rate has remained below 5% for 87 consecutive days now.