The Health Ministry data on Tuesday said coronavirus pandemic has hit men harder than women in India, here 70 per cent of the approximately 1.47 lakh people who died since the national outbreak in January were male.
"Seventy per cent of all deaths due to COVID-19 have been reported among men. Forty-five per cent deaths have been reported in those below 60 years of age," Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, giving an age- and gender-wise distribution of the total cases during today's briefing.
He added 63 per cent of total cases were amongst men and 52 per cent cases were in the 18-44 age group but only 11 per cent deaths were reported from this section.
According to the Health Ministry, daily deaths in the country - among lowest per million in the world - have slipped to under 300 a day, active cases are at 2.7 lakh after six months, and the cumulative positivity is at 6.02 per cent. It also shared that at least 6 travellers who came to India from Britain have been detected and are under isolation while addressing the concerns about the UK covid strain.
"It is important to remember that it is easy to tackle a virus or a new strain at the beginning before there are multiple chains of transmission," the centre said as it made genome sequencing of all Covid-positive foreign returnees between December 9 and 22 mandatory.
The "70 per cent more communicable" mutation has arrived in India just as the country recorded its lowest daily case rise in over six months. This has increased the fear of another corona wave and may lead to more lockdowns across the states.
NITI Ayog member Dr VK Paul said looking at the cold climatic condition restrictions like night curfew may be implemented because a subsequent population is still susceptible to COVID-19.
"The UK (coronavirus) variant has travelled to several other countries and also to India. It may have its run and we have to be very careful. One can't be careless," he said.
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The Centre has assured that there is no evidence the vaccines developed against Sars-CoV-2 would not protect against the new Covid strains from the UK and South Africa.
Experts have suggested, based on studying the new strain's structure, that 90 per cent of the virus structure was still the same and the existing vaccines should remain effective.