India's Uttar Pradesh State has declared victory against COVID after it reported a recovery rate of 98.6%. The government announced a steady improvement of the COVID situation in the area with about 67 districts reporting no new cases of the viral infection in the last 24 hours.
According to Hindustan Times, India's Uttar Pradesh State has a total of 199 active cases, with a positivity rate going as low as 0.01%. In the last 24 hours, the state reported only 11 new COVID cases and no deaths. India Today credits the success to the stringent "trace, test and treat" measure, vaccination and partial curfews that helped bring down COVID case numbers in the recent weeks.
But the Gateway Pundit says that Ivermectin played a significant role in the recovery of the state from COVID. According to its report, "Uttar Pradesh is the leading state in India to use Ivermectin as early and preventatively in all family contacts." Uttar Pradesh is also one of five states in India with the lowest cases of COVID despite having a low vaccination rate of just 5.8% of its population. The state currently has 15,236,150 fully vaccinated individuals.
"Uttar Pradesh was the first state in the country to introduce large-scale prophylactic and therapeutic use of Ivermectin," Surveillance Officer Vikssendu Agrawal said, as reported by the Indian Express. Dr. Anshul Pareek led a team in May to June 2020 to administer Ivermectin to patients on an experimental basis. Agrawal said, "It was observed that none of them developed Covid-19 despite being in daily contact with patients who had tested positive for the virus."
Agrawal added that Ivermectin has helped the state maintain low positivity rates despite its high population density. He added, "Once the second wave subsides, we would conduct our own study as there has been an emerging body of evidence to substantiate our timely use of Ivermectin from the first wave itself."
India continues to see a benefit from Ivermectin, which the mainstream media continues to vilify. However, Juan Chamie, the Cambridge-based data analyst who has provided graphical insight and published on COVID, told The Desert Review that "Despite a widespread attempt by the media and WHO to convince the world that India has dropped Ivermectin by citing the [Directorate General of Health Services] DGHS, the [Indian Council of Medical Research] ICMR and [All India Institute Of Medical Science] AIIMS have not changed their position, and Ivermectin remains in the India National Protocol."
Following the deadly wave of COVID in April and May in India, cases have seen a major decline all over the country. However, the western state of Maharashtra and the southern state of Kerala have seen yet another spike, DW reported. On Wednesday, Maharashtra reported over 3,700 new cases and over 50 deaths, while Kerala recorded over 4.4 million cases with more than 23,000 deaths.
Health experts are now warning of a potential third wave in October especially as the festival season is fast approaching. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that efforts were being undertaken to ensure hospital bed capacity and oxygen availability in the event of another deadly wave.
