COVID-19: Mansukh Mandaviya to interact with health ministers of southern states on Jan 28

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will interact with health ministers of 8 southern states and UTs on their present COVID-19 scenario and vaccination status on January 28. According to official sources, COVID vaccination, health infrastructure, emergency response as well as health system preparedness package will be discussed in the meeting. Health ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, Lakshadweep, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Andaman and Nicobar Islands will participate in the video conferencing with the Centre. 

On January 24, Mansukh Mandaviya had held a similar interaction with the health ministers of 9 states and union territories namely- Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Ladakh, and Chandigarh.

A week prior, he had also held a virtual conference with states along the Western belt namely Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Goa and Dadra, Nagar Haveli, and Daman Diu. A deeper analysis of COVID was done by the Health Ministry officials covering the trajectory of total and news cases, active cases, daily and weekly positivity, weekly tests conducted with the proportion of RAT and RT-PCR testing, deaths, Tests per Millon (TPM), Cases per Million (CPM) and Omicron case status.

COVID-19 in India

With 2,86,384 people testing positive for the Coronavirus in the last 24 hours, India's total tally of infections rose to 4,03,71,500 on Thursday. The death toll climbed to 4,91,700 with 573 fresh fatalities, the Health Ministry data stated. The active cases have decreased to 22,02,472 and comprise 5.46 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has decreased to 93.33 per cent, the ministry informed.

On the vaccination front, 95% of India's eligible adult population has been administered the first dose of the COVID vaccine while 74% are fully inoculated. Earlier today, Mansukh Mandaviya had congratulated the nation for the remarkable achievement saying that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, hard work of health workers and public participation, the country was continuously moving forward in its vaccine campaign. 

(With agency inputs)