New Delhi, Oct 7 (IANS): The challenge of Covid-19 has not ended yet, said Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry, in a press conference held on Thursday to brief on ongoing Covid situation in the country. He said, "we say that we haven't controlled the second wave of the pandemic yet. We need to make continuous efforts."

Talking about precautions during upcoming festivals, Agarwal said, "We need to be watchful in the months of October, November and December. We need to be alert during the festive season and celebrate these festivals at home and avoid going out".

He said that there are 28 districts currently where Covid positivity rate is between 5 and 10 per cent. Meanwhile, 34 districts are reporting weekly positivity rate of over 10 per cent.

There are currently five states - Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram and Karnataka which have over 10,000 active Covid cases. Agarwal said that on an average, 20,000 Covid cases have been recorded daily. Of these 56 per cent were from Kerala last week.

Total six states and UTs -- Lakshadweep, Chandigarh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar and Sikkim have vaccinated hundred per cent of their population with the first dose.

Talking to media, NITI Aayog Health Member Dr V.K. Paul said that there is no new variant of concern as per the data available, which is updated daily.

He added that at least 1,200 PSA plants are functional now. After the current program of establishing PSA plants, which is underway, there will be 4,000 PSA plants across the nation.