Nearly 50 per cent of Indians are not wearing masks: Health Ministry quotes Covid-19 study

The Union Ministry revealed on Thursday that nearly 50 percent of the total population of India does not wear a mask, according to the updates shared adhering to the worsening situation of Covid-19 in the country.

During the press briefing, Lav Agarawal, Health Ministry Joint Secretary stated that eight states are currently having over 1 lakh active cases of the deadly virus, and nine states have between 50,000 to 1 lakh active Covid-19 cases and the remaining 19 states have less than 50,000 cases.

Based on the survey conducted in 25 cities over 2,000 respondents, the Health Ministry has quoted the statement on facial masks.

The survey on wearing of facial masks amid the Covid-19 pandemic was published on the social media platform – Twitter by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B), which stated that around 50 percent of the population avoids wearing the face mask, whereas 64 percent of them covers the mouth with the face mask and leaves the nose, 20 percent of them have the mask over the chin and as many as 2 percent have it stuck on the neck region.

The survey clarifies that a mere 14 percent of the population wears the face mask in the appropriate manner which covers the nose, mouth and chin.

Photo Credits: Twitter@COVIDNewsbyMIB

Positivity rate

Agarwal further mentioned that around seven states of the country are having over 25 percent of positivity rate, and alongside, nine states with 20-25 positivity rate. Going further, a positivity rate of 15 percent has been identified in twenty two states, followed by thirteen states with 5 – 15 percent positivity rate and only one state has a positivity rate of less than 5 per cent.

He further added the states of Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya Tripura, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim, Mizoram are having a surge in the cases of Covid-19 along with the rise in the positivity for the span of the last three weeks.

Amid the briefing, ICMR director Dr Balaram Bhargava stated that 2,553 government and private testing laboratories have been set up throughout the country over the last 16 months. He said the statement at the time when over 20.55 lakh tests were carried out in India over a span of 24 hours, breaking the records as the highest-single day testing ever.