Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu tests positive for COVID-19; advised home quarantine

On Tuesday, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu tested positive for the novel coronavirus after he underwent a routine COVID-19 test earlier in the day. Mentioning that Naidu is asymptomatic, the Vice President's Secretariat added that he had been advised to isolate himself at home. On the other hand, his wife Usha Naidu is in self-isolation despite testing negative for COVID-19. 

Earlier, several members of the Union Cabinet such as Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Shripad Naik, Dharmendra Pradhan, Kailash Choudhary, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Gajendra Shekhawat and Suresh Angadi were diagnosed with COVID-19. However, in a shocking development on September 23, Angadi passed away at AIIMS in the national capital. Moreover, in mandatory tests carried out before the beginning of the Monsoon session of Parliament, it was revealed that at least 25 MPs- 17 from Lok Sabha and 8 from Rajya Sabha have contracted the virus. This includes BJP parliamentarians such as Meenakshi Lekhi, Anant Kumar Hegde.

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COVID-19 crisis in India

Currently, there are 9,47,576 active cases in India while 51,01,397 patients have been discharged and 96,318 deaths have been reported. Addressing the media, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan stated that the count of COVID-19 deaths per million population in India is amongst the lowest in the world. He added that the number of COVID-19 tests per million population has crossed 50,000 in India. A total of 2.97 crore tests have been conducted in the month of September.

Unveiling the findings of the 2nd serosurvey conducted between August 17 and September 22, ICMR head Dr.Balram Bhargava revealed that one out of every 15 individuals aged 10 years and above are estimated to be exposed to COVID-19 by August 2020. Blood samples were collected from 29,082 individuals from the same 700 villages/wards from 70 districts from 21 states covered during the 1st survey. It was observed that urban slum (15.6%) and non-slum (8.2%) areas had higher COVID-19 prevalence than that of rural areas (4.4%).

The prevalence in adults stands at 7.1%. Furthermore, the seroprevalence is not different by age group and gender. Maintaining that a considerable percentage of the population is still vulnerable to COVID-19, he stressed adherence to the 5T strategy- Test, Track, Trace, Treat and Technology. 

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