Union Health Secretary to chair meeting with states on Covid-19 situation
New Delhi, June 28: Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan is scheduled to chair a meeting with states on the Covid-19 situation and vaccination on Tuesday, sources informed.
https://www.ptcnews.tv/union-health-secretary-to-chair-meeting-with-states-on-covid-19-situation
Earlier, Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya reviewed the Covid and vaccination situation in the country and chaired a meeting with key experts and officials.
Mandaviya had recommended at a high-level meeting that the Covid situation in the nation be rigorously monitored, with a focus on vaccination of the elderly population, school-age children, surveillance, and genome sequencing.
Over the past several weeks, India has seen a large number of Covid-19 cases. More than 1,000 cases are reported daily in states like Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Haryana, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Gujarat.
The Union Minister highlighted the need of focusing on the districts reporting high case positive rates and doing adequate testing (with a larger proportion of RTPCR) and effective Covid-19 surveillance to assess and limit the spread of infection as soon as possible.
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Mandaviya gave the officials the order to keep their focus on monitoring and whole-genome sequencing (WGS), which is used to look for any potential mutations.
Additionally, he oversaw the monitoring of hospitalizations caused by Covid-19 and SARI/ILI cases.
He further urged officials to increase the pace of vaccination including booster doses in districts reporting high cases. "As there are adequate vaccine doses available, let there be no vaccine wastage while focusing on accelerating vaccination among the eligible and vulnerable groups," he said.
Dr VK Paul, Member Health NITI Aayog, AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria, ICMR Director-General Dr Balram Bhargava, Dr N K Arora, Chairman COVID working group, National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI), NCDC director Sujeet Singh and Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan were among the attendees.
Meanwhile, India recorded 11,793 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, the country's tally to 4,34,18,839. With this, the active cases rose to 96,700.
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-PTC News
