Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey said that the COVID-19 cases in India are on a sustained decline since the reported peak in September 2020.

"Although high in absolute terms, India has managed to restrict the morbidity to 7,801 cases per million population, which is far lower than other similarly affected countries," Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey said in a written reply.

"Since the reported peak in mid-September 2020, India is witnessing a sustained decline in the number of cases reported daily. However, resurgence of COVID-19 cases has been reported from a number of countries in Europe and Americas, therefore continuous monitoring of the evolving situation is being undertaken at all level, to pick up on the earliest signs of resurgence and issue necessary existing SOPs/Advisories accordingly," the minister added.

Choubey stated that the government is continuing to focus on intensive risk communication to limit viral transmission by advocating adherence to COVID appropriate behaviours.

Till February 3, India recorded 1,07,77,284 COVID-19 cases, the second-highest in numbers after the US. The vaccination drive commenced on January 16 and 3, 41,38,918 people have been inoculated so far.

Speaking on the new UK strain of COVID-19, Choubey said a surveillance system has been put in place to identify this variant among those with travel history to the UK from December 23.