The daily Covid-19 case count has remained above 40,000 for the past few days as on Saturday update till 8 am, taking India’s total tally of infections to touch to 3,29,45,907, while active cases registered an increase for the fourth consecutive day, prompting the Union Health Ministry to hold a meeting with North East and Hill States and UTs asking them to quickly saturate the first dose coverage among the 18+ population category in the region.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan chaired the high-level review
meeting with representatives from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand.
At the outset, the Health Secretary underlined that they must also focus on the 60+ age group. He pointed out that the coverage of both the doses in this category is unsatisfactory in Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Meghalaya. The vulnerability of this age group to Covid-19 makes this exercise of prime importance, he said.
The attention of the States was brought to the fact that the administration of the first dose has progressively outpaced the administration of second dose. It was suggested that States earmark doses, earmark days and target the completion of the exercise for these beneficiaries.
States/UTs were also advised to closely monitor the stock from State Vaccine Stores to Cold Chain Point, check rational distribution and restrict vaccine
wastage to below 2%, update data on eVIN (electronic vaccine intelligence network) on a daily basis, check supply of other denomination syringes as per availability for Covid vaccination.
While 42,618 people tested positive for coronavirus, the death toll climbed to 4,40,225 with 330 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am on Saturday.
The daily positivity rate was recorded 2.50 per cent and the weekly positivity rate was 2.63 per cent. It has been below three per cent for the last 71 days.
India’s Covid-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19, two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.