PM Modi chairs key meeting on COVID-19 situation and vaccine drive amid Omicron scare

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting with top officials today to discuss the country's COVID-19 situation amid Omicron COVID variant scare. PM Modi, in the meeting, discussed the COVID-19 situation in the country along with the progress of the vaccination drive. The meeting with top officials took place at 10:30 am today, November 27.

The PM is also expected to discuss the concern prevailing over the new Omicron variant. Meanwhile, vaccination is also expected to be a top talking point in the meeting. This comes after the Serum Institute of India (SII) announced the resumption of exports to the international vaccine sharing programme COVAX. The first batches of the Covishield COVID-19 vaccine left the SII manufacturing facility in Pune on Friday for other low-income countries.

COVID situation in India

As per the Union ministry of health and family welfare, India's daily tally of coronavirus infections passed 10,000 on Friday. A total of 10,549 new cases were registered in the last 24 hours, bringing the total caseload to 34,555,431. On November 21, the daily COVID-19 infections surpassed the aforementioned level, with 10,488 patients being diagnosed with COVID-19. A total of 488 individuals were reported dead while 9,868 recovered on Friday, bringing the overall number of deaths and recoveries to 467,468 and 33,977,830, respectively.

However, India accounts for fewer than 1% of the caseload and are at its lowest level since March 2020, according to the Union Health Ministry. Meanwhile, the recovery rate has risen to 98.33%, the highest level since March of last year. To date, authorities have provided almost 1.2 billion vaccine doses to eligible beneficiaries, with 426,210,849 receiving full COVID-19 vaccination and the rest 776,492,810 receiving only the first dose. In the last 24 hours, the vaccine was given to more than 8.3 million people.

Health Ministry calls for strict screening at airports 

In a fresh advisory, in order to curb the prospects of the COVID-19 outbreak from the new Omnicorn variant originated in South Africa, India on Saturday announced that it will conduct rigorous screening and testing of all international travellers coming from or transiting through South Africa, Hong Kong and Botswana. India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Nov. 26 added several nations on the list that now requires additional health safety measures including the COVID-19 diagnosis post-arrival. Among the countries added to the additional measures, list is the UK, Israel, China, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh Botswana, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the European countries. 

Image: PTI