Health secretary said, in the last surge of Covid-19, on 30th April last year, there were three lakh 86 thousand new cases and around three thousand deaths. He said, currently on 20th January this year, there are three lakh 17 thousand new cases and 380 deaths reported. <br />'' <br />''On vaccination status in the country, the health Secretary said that that 94 per cent of total adult population has received the first dose while 72 per cent has received the 2nd dose. He said, so far 52 per cent of the population aged between 16 to 18 years have been vaccinated with first dose.<br />'' <br />''Speaking on the occasion, Director General of ICMR, Dr Balram Bhargava said, Vaccines have remained beneficial in India.<br />'' <br />''<br />''<span style="color: #222222;">He said, deaths have been considerably reduced due to vaccinations. In this third surge of COVID19, we are currently not witnessing severe illness and deaths due to high vaccination uptake.</span><br />