COVID: Health Minister Mandaviya holds review meet; lists key mantra to fight pandemic

In view of the rising COVID-19 cases, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Mansukh Mandaviya convened a meeting to review public health preparedness and vaccination progress with Ministers of State and Union Territories on Sunday. While stressing strict compliance to COVID appropriate behaviour, the Centre underlined before the State and Union Territories that Test, Track, Treat, and Vaccination is the primary Mantra for the collective fight against the pandemic. 

Besides, the critical bottlenecks of the Medical infrastructure were discussed, and the States and Union Territories were advised by the centre to better utilize the funds allocated under Phase-II of the Emergency COVID19 Response Package (ECRP). 

“We have put up a strong fight against COVID earlier and this learning must be used to re-focus on efforts against Omicron variant, ” said Health Minister Mandaviya in the meeting. 

Meanwhile, the Union Health Ministry with All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, held a series of webinars with State-level Centers of Excellence-medical colleges and hospitals. Another series of webinars to be held with district-level public & private COVID facilities on various aspects of clinical management of COVID cases.

COVID cases in India 

With Omicron moving forward to replace Delta as the dominant variant, India recorded a 21 per cent rise with  27,553 new cases reported in the last 24 hours. The country's Coronavirus tally now stands at 3,48,89,132 with active cases (1,22,801) accounting for 0.35% of the total caseload. The daily positivity rate is currently at 2.55 per cent. The country registered 284 deaths, taking the total fatality to 4.81,770. 

Notably, a high positivity rate is considered one of the first signs of an impending wave of infections. With daily multiplying cases, experts have already warned that India is likely to witness the third wave of infections soon.

Meanwhile, as many as 25,75,225 vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours, bringing India`s COVID-19 vaccination coverage to 145.44 Crore (1,45,44,13,005) as per provisional reports.

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