Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Thursday told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that mucormycosis or black fungus, which has claimed 90 lives in the state so far, is a matter of prime concern for it at present, and the state government needs more supply of the medicine used in its treatment.
Jammu and Kashmir and Odisha on Tuesday recorded their first cases of the Omicron variant of COVID as the count of the new strain in 14 states and union territories crossed 200 even as the Centre said there is a need to 'activate' war rooms, take 'pro-active' action and consider night curfews.
Of the 46,164 fresh coronavirus cases recorded in the country in a 24-hour span, 31,445 were in Kerala. Maharashtra has reported 5,031 new cases and 216 fresh fatalities on Wednesday.
The release of the statistics follows growing panic in the country over concerns that the second wave is somehow more powerful and could cause greater havoc.
The Centre said that there is no reason to believe presently on the that they are responsible for the surge in cases in some districts in these two states.
In order to bring uniformity, the need for following the existing framework for either imposition of restrictions or allowing relaxations based on the burden of disease and strain on healthcare infrastructure still remain important.
India's COVID-19 cases and deaths per million population are amongst the lowest in the world, the govt says.
The first 100 beneficiaries of such foreign vaccines shall be assessed for seven days for safety outcomes before it is rolled out for further immunisation programme within the country, the Union health ministry said.
Stressing that there is a need to strengthen the collective efforts to curb the spread of the virus, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said ramping up testing and vaccination, healthcare infrastructure planning, following Covid-appropriate behaviour and effective clinical management are among the measures to be taken by these states.
"Keeping a close pace with the potential availability of vaccine, a plan of action on which sections are to be given priority has been discussed. Importantly, it would be monitored through a scientific approach," Dr Harsh Vardhan told ANI about the strategy being discussed on vaccine distribution.
India's COVID-19 fatality rate has dropped significantly to 2.43 per cent from 3.36 per cent on June 17 due to effective clinical management of coronavirus cases, the health ministry and asserted that the country has handled the pandemic 'relatively well'.
Modi stressed on the need for constant genome sequencing to monitor emergence of mutants and also to ensure increased oxygen availability, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said in a statement.
One in 15 individuals aged 10 years and above were estimated to be exposed to SARS- CoV2 by August 2020, ICMR's 2nd sero-survey said.
"Also, 35 per cent deaths were recorded in the age group of 45-60 years, 10 per cent in the age group of 26-44 years and one per cent each in the age group of 18-25 years and below 17 years," the health secy said.
All travellers and contacts have been tested and quarantined.
Indian Council of Medical Research Director General Balram Bhargava said the purpose of the COVID vaccine drive would be to break the chain of viral transmission.
Maharashtra is in the beginning of a second COVID-19 wave, a central team report has said, highlighting that there is very limited active effort to track, test, isolate cases and quarantine contacts, and there is no adherence to COVID appropriate behaviour among people in rural and urban areas in the state.
The states and Union territories were also urged not to store, reserve, conserve or create a buffer stock of the COVID-19 vaccines, the Union health ministry said in a statement, a day after the start of the second phase of India's inoculation drive in which the coverage has been expanded to include everyone above 60 and those over 45 with specified co-morbidities.
Addressing a press conference, NITI Aayog member (Health) V K Paul said concerns about adverse effects and serious problems post immunisation, as of now, seem to be unfounded, negligible and insignificant, and stressed that both the vaccines -- Covishield and Covaxin -- are safe.
While the United States' share in global COVID-19 cases is 22.4 per cent, those who have recuperated there comprise 18.6 per cent of total worldwide recoveries, according to data presented by Bhushan.
'Sulochanaji was indeed a mother-figure to both the Hindi and Marathi film industry.'
On the basis of feedback from the teams, the ministry has written to the states highlighting the areas of concern, including sub-optimal containment operations and contact tracing, skewed testing and shortage of health workers. Authorities need to work in these areas, it said.
Over 21 per cent of the population, aged 10 years and above, showed evidence of past exposure to COVID-19 in the Indian Council of Medical Research's latest national serosurvey, the government said on Thursday, noting that a large proportion of people are still vulnerable to the infection.
Officer on Special Duty in the Health Ministry Rajesh Bhushan said 21 states and Union Territories have case positivity rate less than 10 per cent, while in four it is less than five per cent.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Saturday briefed about the new 'Omicron' variant of the coronavirus, and he asked officials to review the plans to ease international travel restrictions in light of the 'emerging new evidence.'
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The official expressed hope on the success of the five vaccines that are under different phases of trial in the country.
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.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the challenge of the Covid pandemic is not fully over yet, with the increase in coronavirus cases in the last two weeks manifesting the need to stay alert, and underlined that vaccination remains the biggest protective shield against the virus.
Vardhan noted that COVID-19 infection among those vaccinated would be very mild and not progress to an advanced stage.
The rate of increase in coronavirus cases in Maharashtra between February 14 to March 23 was three times that recorded in the previous four months, data shows.
35 districts have been reporting high active COVID-19 caseload and fatality rate. These 35 districts comprise all 11 districts in Delhi, Kolkata, Howrah, North 24 Parganas and 24 South Parganas in West Bengal; Pune, Nagpur, Thane, Mumbai, Mumbai Suburban, Kolhapur, Sangli, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Raigad, Jalgaon, Solapur, Satara, Palghar, Aurangabad, Dhule and Nanded in Maharashtra; Surat in Gujarat; Pondicherry in Puducherry and East Singhbhum in Jharkhand.
A number of countries like Canada, Turkey, Belgium, Italy and Israel have banned flights from the UK as the British government warned that the potent new strain of the virus was "out of control" and imposed a stringent new stay-at-home lockdown from Sunday.
Strict norms for arriving international passengers, especially from 'at-risk' countries, will come into effect from Tuesday midnight and authorities are stepping their vigil for effective surveillance amid mounting concerns over the emergence of the coronavirus variant Omicron.
The urgent need to address a large number of beneficiaries waiting for second dose of vaccine was stressed in a meeting held by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan and Dr R S Sharma, the Chairman of Empowered Group on Technology and Data Management to Combat COVID-19, with state officials to review the status of COVID-19 vaccination on Tuesday.
The ministry, however, said it could not be sufficiently established yet if these variants were behind the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in some states.
The fight for freedom was long and hard and that is why it is important to go back to the monuments that celebrate those who fought the good fight.
The central government had announced that the vaccination for those above 18 years will begin across the country from May 1 as part of the third phase of the inoculation drive.
While the infection has been mild in most reported cases, those below two years of age are showing signs of acute infection.
The finance ministry is working on a second relief package for the Indian economy hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak and the 21-day nationwide lockdown imposed to curb the contagion, sources said. Last month, the government announced a Rs 1.70 lakh crore relief package in the form of foodgrains and cash transfers for the poor and vulnerable section of the society to help them deal with the hardships caused by the lockdown. Now, the government is working on a stimulus to be given to hard-hit sectors of the economy after the lockdown is lifted, sources said, adding that an announcement is expected in the next few days depending on the severity of the pandemic.
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