Visakhapatnam district records 2,206 new COVID cases, 10 deaths

Need to complete inoculation as fast as possible to arrest the spread of virus, say doctors

People arguing with the police seeking permission to give food and water to their relatives in the COVID Ward, at the King George Hospital in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.

The total number of the COVID-19 cases in the Visakhapatnam district is racing towards the one lakh mark, with the district recording 2,206 new cases in the last 24 hours taking the total tally to 98,331.

With the new cases, the active cases as on Sunday stood at 19,134.

Before the second wave hit the district, the active cases as on March 1 were just 24. In the last 60 odd days, the district recorded close to 38,000 cases, with about 10,000 cases coming up in the last five days.

The district also recorded 10 deaths in the last 24 hours, as on Sunday morning, taking the total death count to 698. In the last four days, the district recorded over 40 deaths.

Meanwhile, the number of discharges on Sunday morning was 919, taking the total discharges to 78,499.

‘Vaccine shortage’

The district has been seeing a spike in cases in the last one week, averaging around 2,000 cases per day and recording about 60 deaths. Senior officials from the Health Department say that the spike might continue till the last week of May and may see a flattening thereafter. But they say that the flattening of the curve depends on the vaccination drive, which they say has to improve. There is a shortage of vaccines both for the first and the second jabs and there is a need for increasing the allocation, said a senior doctor, engaged in COVID care.

Another senior doctor from the KGH pointed out that the Union government should have accorded permission to Pfizer when the company had approached to market its product.

“Right now we have just two companies manufacturing and marketing the vaccines in India. To meet the target of vaccinating at least 70% of the population, we need more players and the government should think of allowing other manufacturers and make the vaccines available more freely. The ideal scenario would be to open up the vaccines for all, make vaccines available freely and complete the inoculation, at least the first dose, as fast as possible. Only then we can break the chain of spread and bring down the curve,” he said.