Rai said as informed by the health ministry, the central government has been providing required technical and financial assistance to all states and Union Territories (UTs) for strengthening their healthcare system, including management of the COVID-19 public health challenge, from time to time, and the financial assistance to states and UTs is provided under the National Health Mission (NHM).
Modi said India has taken an important step forward in protecting its youth population against the disease.
Most Indians have acquired hybrid immunity which means immunity developed through vaccines and also natural infection protecting them from different COVID-19 variants.
The Centre said there is an urgent need for states to consider strict COVID management and control measures to bring the situation under control.
"Kerala has received 73,38,806 doses of vaccine from Central government. We have provided 74,26,164 doses, even making use of the extra dose available as wastage factor in each vial. Our health workers, especially nurses have been super efficient and deserve our wholehearted appreciation!," Vijayan had tweeted.
Any significant adverse effect is unlikely if the second dose of a different COVID-19 vaccine is administered, but reaching a firm opinion on this will need more scrutiny and understanding, the Centre said.
'We got so many calls after the attack.' 'Loved ones told us forget all this, nothing was more valuable than our lives.' 'But we said, 'No, this wasn't the way forward -- the people, society, the country needs us at this time.'
A model being considered is to have a combined cold chain approach - where the agricultural cold chain would be combined with vaccine cold chains.
Twelve states have over one lakh active COVID-19 cases each at present, while the count is between 50,000 and one lakh in seven, the health ministry said on Friday as the country battles a second wave of the viral disease.
The languages which are now being offered are Hindi, Punjabi, Assamese, Bengali, Odia, Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Urdu and English.
A dry run for COVID-19 vaccination will be conducted by all state and union territory administrations on January 2 to test the linkages between planning and implementation and to identify the challenges, the Centre said on Thursday.
More than 1.82 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses are available with states and union territories, and over 4 lakh will be received by them within the next three days, the Union health ministry said.
'I want to send a positive message to people that they should not fear the Covid vaccine.'
The NHS staff will drive in through the Edgbaston road entrance, be tested while remaining in their vehicle and exit the grounds onto Pershore Road, it added.
A total of 125 passengers on a Milan-Amritsar charter flight were found to be COVID-positive when tested on arrival, government officials said on Thursday.
Three passengers, including a British national of Goan-origin, who arrived at the international airport near here on a flight from the United Kingdom on early Friday, tested positive for COVID-19, state Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said.
The death toll climbed to 5,24,323 with 20 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.
"Coming festivals (Chhat, Puja, Dussehra, Deepavali, Id, Xmas, New year) pose a huge challenge in the pandemic control. It has been seen that Onam in Kerala and Ganesh Chaturthi in Maharashtra escalated the pandemic seriously. This must not be allowed to happen in Delhi," the report stated.
The experts said there is a need to relook at the testing strategy in a way that it results in guiding the public health response and effectively limiting the spread of the disease.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the establishment of the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine (WHO GCTM) in Jamnagar will usher in a new era of traditional medicine globally.
Waqar Younis said that he is worried that players in Pakistan might face mental health issues if cricket continued to be played for more time in the COVID-19 situation.
The Centre wrote to all states and union territories on Thursday and asked them to make necessary arrangements for this, the Union Health Ministry said.
'Forcing the development of an indigenous vaccine as a cure for COVID-19, bypassing all health & safety norms, to be announced by PM Modi on Independence Day is fraught with horrendous human costs'
On media reports quoting some Maharashtra government officials that vaccines in the state are "finished" and adversely impacting the vaccination drive, the ministry said a balance of 7,49,960 vaccine doses is still available with the state for administration to eligible population groups.
The tally of active cases now comprises 0.05 per cent of the total infections.
Leaders of 13 Opposition parties Sunday urged the Centre to launch a free mass vaccination drive across the country in view of the unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases.
Healthcare workers at the frontline of India's COVID-19 battle got their first jabs after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the world's biggest drive via video conferencing.
This was the sixth consecutive day when coronavirus cases increased by more than 14,000. Consequently, India has added 92,573 cases since June 20, and over 2.82 lakh this month alone since June 1.
The ministry said the country has a robust system of reporting deaths, including those caused by COVID-19, and the data is compiled regularly at different levels of governance, starting from the gram panchayat level to the district level and the state level.
According to the health ministry, advance appointments for vaccination can be booked through http://cowin.gov.in, or one can visit their nearest vaccination center after 3 pm and get on-site registration done.
The drive has begun with Biological E's Corbevax vaccine to be administered 28 days apart. As of March 1, 2021, there were 4.7 crore children aged 12 and 13 years in the country.
The incident took place as a large number of people congregated on Badamba-Gopinathpur T-Bridge on the occasion of Makar Mela, a police officer said.
'We cannot leave our entire unorganised sector to the vagaries of market forces.'
The 10,200-bed facility was inaugurated on July 5 last year and was operated by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police. The centre was 1,700 feet long and 700 feet wide -- roughly the size of 20 football fields -- and had 200 enclosures with 50 beds each.
According to some social media posts, the videos of garba performance are from the Goregaon-based jumbo COVID-19 facility of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.
In view of Omicron variant of COVID-19, the Centre on Friday urged the private health sector to be ready as it has to play an important role in managing the pandemic.
The Serum Institute of India has informed the Centre that it will be able to supply around 22 crore doses of Covishield in October as the Union government has announced resuming export of surplus Covid vaccines in the coming fourth quarter under the 'Vaccine Maitri' programme, official sources said.
Cases with the Omicron variant have already been detected in Karnataka and Gujarat.
The doubling time of coronavirus cases in India has improved to 15.4 days from 13.3 days, the Union health ministry said on Saturday, as the country's COVID-19 death toll climbed to 4,971 and the total cases rose to 1,73,763. The doubling time has improved during the past three days, it said. As many as 11,264 COVID-19 patients have been cured in the last 24 hours till Saturday 8 am, the highest number of recoveries recorded in one day, pushing India's recovery rate to 47.40 per cent, it said.
All COVID vaccines do not prevent infection and are primarily disease-modifying, said Dr Balram Bhargava, director general, Indian Council of Medical Research on Thursday.
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