Health workers dispose of their personal protective equipment (PPE) after conducting rapid-antigen methodology Covid-19 tests from a testing vehicle at a healthcare center in New Delhi. (Photographer: T. Narayan/Bloomberg)
6 years ago
Jul 31, 2020
Track news and developments around the Covid-19 outbreak in India here.
Given the size of India's population, herd immunity "cannot be a strategic choice or option", the health ministry said on Thursday as it urged people to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour till a vaccine is developed.
At a press briefing, when asked whether India was approaching herd immunity against the coronavirus infection, Officer on Special Duty in the Health Ministry Rajesh Bhushan replied that herd immunity is a kind of indirect protection from an infectious disease like Covid-19.
It happens only when a population becomes immune either through vaccination or immunity is developed through a previous infection, he said.
"In a country with the size of the population like India, herd immunity cannot be a strategic choice or option. It can only be an outcome, and that too at a very high cost as it means lakhs of people would have to be infected, get hospitalised and many would die in the process," Bhushan said.
Health officials across Asia are facing a wave of Covid-19 outbreaks, as Australia’s hot spot Victoria state announced a daily record of more than 700 cases and Vietnamese capital Hanoi halted large gatherings.
In the U.S., deaths from the virus surpassed 150,000, the highest official toll in the world and another grim milestone in a pandemic that’s still raging in many parts of the country. California, Texas and Florida each reported record daily fatalities.
Globally, confirmed Covid-19 cases have topped 16.9 million with over 667,000 dead.
Track news and developments around the Covid-19 outbreak in India here.
