E-Paper
Mandaviya holds review meeting amid Covid surge
The health minister stressed on the need to focus on districts reporting high case positivity.
Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday directed the states to ramp up testing and accelerate Covid-19 vaccination of the eligible population during a high-level review meeting over increasing number of cases in the country.
“Union Health Minister stressed on the need to focus on districts reporting high case positivity and undertake adequate testing (with higher proportion of RT-PCR) and effective Covid-19 surveillance to assess and control the spread of infection in a timely manner. Dr Mandaviya directed the officials to continue to focus on surveillance and on Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) to scan for any possible mutation. He also directed for monitoring hospitalizations due to COVID19, and SARI/ILI cases,” said the Press Information Bureau in a statement.The health minister stressed on the need to focus on districts reporting high case positivity.
“As there is adequate vaccine doses available, let there be no vaccine wastage while focusing on accelerating vaccination among the eligible and vulnerable group,” he said.
India has seen an increase in cases over the past few weeks. As on date, 10 states — Maharashtra, Kerala, Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal and Gujarat — have at least 1,000 active cases. India saw 17,650 new cases on Thursday, taking the tally to 43.35million, while the active cases increased to about 90,000, according to HT dashboard data. The death toll has climbed to 523,650 with 26new fatalities on Thursday.
