E-Paper
Empowered groups on vaccine and oxygen working since 2020: Cabinet Secretary
Cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba made it clear the the second doses of vaccine should be a priority to build effective immunity against the virus and that the states and UTs should minimise the wastage of vaccine.
At a meeting chaired by Cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba on Tuesday to review the Covid situation in the country, it was made quite evident that the groups of experts on vaccination and supply of liquid medical oxygen had been working since April 2020 and August 2020 respectively. This flies against opposition accusation that the Narendra Modi government was caught unawares by the rise in infection in the past month.
"We had an issue of Liquified Medical Oxgyen (LMO) during September 2020 due to rise in infection so we ramped up supply from 1,000 metric tonnes to 3,000 metric tonnes to cater to demand. This demand dropped to 1000 metric tonnes in February 2021 but last month we supply nearly 8,000 metric tonnes of oxygen to meet up the increased demand due to exponential increase in infection due to mutant virus," said a member who attended the meeting today.
The cabinet secretary made it clear the the second doses of vaccine should be a priority to build effective immunity against the virus and that the states and UTs should minimise the wastage of vaccine. The meeting was attended by chief secretaries and health secretaries of all states and union territories (UTs).
Gauba shared with states the work done by the national task force and experts' groups constituted by the Centre on crucial matters like improvement and augmentation of health infrastructure, research and production of vaccines, welfare of poor people and supply of oxygen.
He also briefed the states on the action taken by the government of India in controlling the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic since last year.
The cabinet secretary appreciated the work done in real-time by states and UTs to augment health infrastructure and informed them about the various advisories issued by Union health ministry and other ministries of government of India on home isolation and care of mild Covid-19 cases.
He informed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's active engagement with domestic industries for production and supply of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) since September last year has helped in resolving various logistics issues of its transport through land, water and air routes.
Gauba emphasised the need of keeping the public informed about the action taken by the central and state governments and assured that no stone would be left unturned to provide timely oxygen supply and other medical resources to the hospitals.
The cabinet secretary also expressed concern over misinformation on vaccination, saying that all vaccines that are procured either by the central government or the state governments are actually meant for the public and there is no consumption at the central level.
Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, who was also present at the meeting, urged the states and UTs to prioritise in terms of testing, intensive action and local containment of the pandemic, strengthening of hospital infrastructure, augmentation of human resources and rational utilisation of oxygen.
Reiterating the judicious use of vaccines, he stressed upon the need for an awareness campaign on the importance of completion of both doses of vaccination, for better immunity.
The secretary of Information and Broadcasting emphasised the importance of continuation of Covid appropriate behaviour and requested the states to spread awareness about it in the rural and tribal areas by involving the field- level functionaries like anganwadi and ASHA workers.
The meeting comes on a day when India recorded a fall in daily cases of Covid-19. A total of 3,29,942 infections were reported in a span of 24 hours, according to Union health ministry data.
After registering a steady rise for two months, the active cases reduced to 37,15,221 comprising 16.16 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate was recorded at 82.75 per cent.
