In a letter to states and union territories, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has suggested setting up of a state steering committee chaired by the chief secretary, a state task force led by additional Chief Secretary or principal secretary (health), and a district task force to be headed by the district magistrate.
Baby's mother, father and other family members too are COVID-19 patients.
Even though the Health Ministry and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have been insisting that there is 'no solid evidence' of community transmission so far, the government has started scaling up health infrastructure to deal with any situation.
According to CoWIN data, only 73 vaccination centres are currently active in India, of which 32 are government-run.
Remdesivir is considered a key anti-viral drug in the fight against Covid-19. In addition, the government has taken three steps to ensure easy access of hospitals and patients to Remdesivir.
As the country eagerly awaits an expected coronavirus vaccination drive in January, at least 125 intended beneficiaries each in four states who had registered on the Co-WIN App were on Monday sent SMSes informing them about the time and place of their 'COVID-19 vaccination' under a mock-drill to administer the shots at designated centres.
'If there are any symptoms/variants of concern, states can prepare accordingly.'
'We have the technical expertise, and international collaborations. We also have robust real-time data. We are a university of pandemic management. If the ministry neglects the role of NCDC, it is the loss of the country'
The needle-free vaccine will be available at private centres.
With these states imposing lockdowns anew, the health ministry emphasised that the restrictions should be utilised to focus on containment, surveillance and testing in the containment and buffer zones as the key strategy for early detection of cases and fatality management.
India's ace shooter Manu Bhaker on Tuesday received her first dose of COVID-19 vaccine at a government hospital in Jhajjar, Haryana, three months before the Tokyo Olympics where she will enter as one of India's brightest medal hopes.
Pool testing reduces the number of test kits used, and therefore, increases testing capacity. Under the plasma therapy technique, transfusion of plasma from recovered patients to severally ill COVID-19 patients is conducted.
All State Disaster Management Acts have been formed as part of the central disaster management law; hence the state needs the Union government's permission to use the SDRF for helping the pandemic-hit people, a government official said on Thursday.
Poonawalla was talking to media persons amid rising cases of coronavirus infections in the country since March.
The Union health ministry has advised states to immediately review public health preparedness in view of recent reports indicating a surge in respiratory illness in children in northern China.
China's top respiratory disease expert Zhong Nanshan warned of a small COVID-19 spike in the winter and reminded the elderly and vulnerable populations to get vaccinated as soon as possible, state-run Global Times reported.
The average Indian works 46.7 hours per week, surpassing even China's 46.1 hours. In some sectors, the numbers are even more staggering.
According to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, citizens from priority groups in the city who have not yet registered themselves with health workers carrying out house- to-house survey or at urban health centres (UHCs) can get themselves registered on www.ahmedabadcity.gov.in.
Private hospitals can charge up to Rs 250 per dose of COVID-19 vaccine, official sources said on Saturday as India prepares to vaccinate people aged above 60 years and those over 45 with comorbidities from March 1.
The guidelines said that keeping in view the recent spike in new cases in a few states and UTs, ongoing festival season and onset of winter, it is emphasised that to fully overcome the pandemic there is a need to maintain caution and to strictly follow the prescribed containment strategy.
Coronavirus is a '12-18 months' problem and the world is not going to be free of this till 2021, says Professor Ashish Jha.
The vaccination sites at present operate from 9 am to 9 pm.
In a letter to states and UTs on Monday, Additional Secretary in the Union Health Ministry Arti Ahuja advised them to pay attention to this aspect immediately and increase the testing in a strategic manner keeping in view the trend of case positivity in specific areas.
The Centre and the states need to continue working in collaborative spirit as was done during the previous surges for COVID-19 prevention and management, Mandaviya said.
Addressing a press conference, Kejriwal said, "Six lakh children in Delhi are going to write CBSE exams. Nearly 1 lakh teachers will be a part of it. These can become major hotspots leading to large-scale spreading of Corona. Children's lives & health is very important to us. I request Centre to cancel CBSE exams."
The world is witnessing the fourth surge of the COVID-19 pandemic and India has to be on guard and cannot afford to slacken, said Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Friday.
The death toll stands at 5,30,780 with one death reported in Gujarat, data updated by the ministry at 8 am stated.
Replying to the notice issued, the Central government said that ex-gratia amount cannot be paid due to financial constraints and other factors.
It will be interesting to see what shifts have been recorded in the last decade-and-a-half -- from the effects of demonetisation and Covid's second wave to the drop in fertility and increase in farm workers -- but we will only know this if and when the Census is conducted, points out Aakar Patel.
"To make sure there isn't a Covid surge in the country, PM Modi has asked us to be careful. The government is also preparing if at the Covid cases increase. Today, mock drills are conducted across Covid hospitals in the country to make sure people get proper treatment," Mandaviya said.
A total of 15,25,631 tests have been conducted so far across 332 government and 121 private laboratories.
Rs 7,774 crore, has been provisioned for COVID-19 Emergency Response and the rest for medium-term support, ranging from one to four years to be provided under mission-mode approach.
In a letter to all states and UTs, Health Ministry Additional Secretary Manohar Agnani said the operationalisation and maintenance of these medical infrastructure is of utmost importance to meet any eventuality even though the number of cases in the country is low now.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has written to these states to draw their attention 'to the low and declining testing rates in the states, stating that any laxity at this crucial junction may squander the results of our collective actions in containing the transmission', according to a health ministry statement.
The vaccination can be held at workplaces that have around 100 eligible and willing beneficiaries.
Amid a spike in Covid-19 cases, the Centre on Monday reviewed with states and Union territories the preparedness for pandemic management and the progress of vaccination.
The patients alleged that they were not being provided with food and water and the condition of the beds was also not up to the mark as 10-12 of them were being kept in a single room.
Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba chaired a high-level review meeting with chief secretaries of states and UTs of Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Telangana and Jammu and Kashmir.
AstraZeneca has stressed that patient safety is its "highest priority" and pointed out that regulators around the world "consistently state that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of extremely rare potential side effects".
This is the fifth consecutive day that COVID-19 cases have increased by more than 50,000 in the country.
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