New Delhi, Sep 30 (IANS): Indian Council of Medical Research Director General, Dr Balram Bhargava on Thursday said that dengue vaccine has become an "important agenda" and the government is working on detailed trials.

Replying to a question at a press briefing on the ongoing Covid-19 situation, he said: "Dengue vaccine is a very important agenda. We are looking at it very carefully. There are certain dengue strains which have been licensed to some companies in India. Many of these companies have done their phase one trials abroad.

"We are planning more rigorous trail with dengue vaccines."

About the current Covid situation in the country, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that India continues to show declining trends in daily Covid caseload as around 23,000 cases have been reported in the last 24 hours, out of which almost 60 per cent have been reported from Kerala.

He noted that Kerala also has started showing a declining trend in number of cases, but still contributes a substantial number to the total caseload.

"Active cases are also on declining trend and recovery rate is improving day by day. There is one state only, Kerala, which has over 1 lakh Covid cases. A total of five states in the country have over 10,000 to 50,000 active cases while others have less than 5,000 active cases," Bhushan said.

He also said that this is 13th week in a row that positivity rate has been less than 3 per cent, and there are 48 districts which need special attention as 18 districts have a positivity rate between 5 to 10 per cent, and 30 districts have positivity rate over 10 per cent.

On the question of Zydus vaccine ZyCoV-D, he said that it would soon come in the Covid vaccination program and the pricing discussion is going with the manufacturer.