No COVID-19 deaths reported in 24 hours in 15 states and Union Territories, says Centre

In some positive news for the country, the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday (February 9) reported that 15 states and Union Territories haven't reported any death due to COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul praised the improvement in the COVID-19 situation in national capital Delhi.

"The number of cases (of COVID-19) is also falling. So that is good news. In the last 24 hours, no death was recorded in Delhi. So that is also good news," Dr Paul had said.

The National Capital has observed a steady decline in the number of Coronavirus cases. Till Monday morning, Delhi recorded 125 new cases and two fatalities. According to the Health department's dat, the positivity rate stood at 0.23 per cent.

Paul also noted that the figures of daily mortality per million population in India over the last seven days have been among the lowest in the world.

The centre also reported that seven states and Union Territories have recorded no fatalities in the last three weeks. These seven states and Union Territories are Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar, Tripura, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Nagaland, Mizoram and Lakshadweep.

The number of fresh daily cases has been on a steady decline and over the last five weeks, there has been a 55 per cent decline in the average daily deaths, said the Union Health Ministry.

The NITI Aayog official, however, requested everyone to not be complacent, pointing out that the nationwide sero survey "tells us that over 70 per cent of our population is still vulnerable".

The national sero-survey conducted by ICMR showed that 25 per cent people or every one in four persons in India are carrying COVID-19 anti-bodies.

While lauding the COVID-19 vaccination programme in the country, Paul said, "We can confidently say that the strategy to implement vaccination programme and the experience of vaccination is now consistently, very highly rated by people".

The Health Ministry reported that India was the fastest to reach the six million vaccination mark, with more than 65 per cent of the registered healthcare workers being vaccinated in 12 states and Union Territories noting that 97 per cent of the beneficiaries were satisfied with the overall vaccination experience.