50% of people still do not wear a mask: Health ministry

India, May 20: The Union Health Ministry on Thursday said according to a study 50 per cent of people still do not wear a mask while 64 per cent of the people who do wear masks, do not cover the nose.

At a media briefing, health ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said that eight states in the country have more than 1 lakh active cases, 9 states have between 50,000-1 lakh active cases and 19 states have less than 50,000 active cases.

India witnessed a consistent upward trend in weekly tests for Covid-19 since mid-February and average daily tests have increased by 2.3 times in the past 12 weeks, the health ministry said.

After a consistent increase in Covid-19 case positivity for 10 weeks, a decline has been reported since the last two weeks, it added.

The number of districts reporting a decline in case positivity increased from 210 in April 29-May 5 to 303 districts on May 13-19, the health ministry said. It also said seven states have more than 25 per cent case positivity, while 22 states have more than 15 per cent case positivity.

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The health ministry insisted on continuing with social distancing and the use of masks to check the spread of infection.

The Union Health Ministry has also urged states and union territories to make black fungus or mucormycosis a notifiable disease under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, stating that the infection is leading to prolonged morbidity and mortality amongst Covid-19 patients.

The ministry, in a letter, said that in recent times a new challenge in the form of a fungal infection namely mucormycosis has emerged and is reported from many states amongst COVID-19 patients, especially those on steroid therapy and deranged sugar control.

India has reported Covid 3,874 deaths and 2,76,110 new cases in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry. The country on Thursday witnessed a slight dip in daily deaths at 3,874 compared to Wednesday saw the highest daily death toll with 4,529 fatalities.