While the coronavirus mutated and evolved, citizens let their guard down and all this led to a spike in cases, snowballing into the second wave, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said.
Acknowledging that while Singh understands the importance of vaccination as an important method of fighting the COVID-19 battle, Vardhan said in his letter that "irresponsible" public pronouncements made by some Congress leaders have resulted in a below national average vaccination coverage of senior citizens and even front-line workers in some of the Congress-ruled states.
A home ministry spokesperson also denied the reports about Swaraj being appointed as the Governor.
India has flattened its Covid-19 graph and 146 districts have reported no new case of the viral disease in the last seven days, 18 in 14 days, six in 21 days and 21 districts in the last 28 days, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Thursday.
A day after India opened up vaccination for those over 60 years and within the age bracket of 45 to 59 years with specified co-morbidities, more politicians took the vaccine jabs on Tuesday, including Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, who, along with his wife, took the first dose of indigenously developed Covaxin at the Delhi Heart and Lung Institute.
Bahujan Samaj Party MP Danish Ali on Friday said if action is not taken against BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri for his derogatory remarks in the Lok Sabha, then he could consider quitting the membership of the House. He also said that people had not elected him to listen to "hate speeches".
Supriyo, who is a playback singer, said the government is trying to clean up the air so that everyone can sing this song from the movie Seeta Aur Geeta.
'He also understands and foresees potential challenges.'
Catch all the action from the Upper and Lower House of Parliament.
Vardhan said that allopathic medicines have saved lives of crores and comments that it is responsible for death of lakhs is "extremely unfortunate".
The senior officials of the health ministry apprised the minister on various improvements that have been made to make the pan India dry run glitch free, such as number of telephone operators has been increased to answer every possible query from the teams on the ground conducting the dry run.
Mansukh Mandaviya replaced Anurag Thakur in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new cabinet.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday announced Prime Minister Narendra Modi will fight again from Varanasi in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as it named 34 Union ministers in the first list of 195 candidates.
Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, while addressing American Association of Physicians Of Indian Origin members, promised Narendra Modi-led NDA government's approval within 15 days if Indian-American doctors apply online for the area of choice where they want to serve. Rediff.com's Aziz Haniffa reports from San Antonio.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday said the government was aiming to bring down India's Covid-19 mortality rate to less than 1 per cent from the current 1.64 per cent, which is still the lowest in the world.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the first phase of the pan India roll-out of COVID-19 vaccination drive at 10.30 am via video conferencing.
But still we have prepared the whole country for the worst situation, the Union health minister said.
Attacking Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on power issue, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Harsh Vardhan on Friday said that if he fails to provide uninterrupted electricity supply and slash rates as promised during elections, he has no right to stay in office.
Stepping up its attack on the Union Health Minister over the removal of All India Institute of Medical Sciences Chief Vigilance Officer Sanjeev Chaturvedi, the Aam Aadmi Party on Friday called for the immediate sacking or resignation of Harsh Vardhan.
Doctors are demanding certain amendments in the bill. According to them, if not amended, the bill will lead to deterioration of medical education and degradation of healthcare services.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday sought keen oversight and personal indulgence of health ministers, principal secretaries and additional chief secretaries of states and union territories to lead the second nationwide mock drill on the COVID-19 vaccination scheduled to be held on January 8.
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi carried out the first revamping of his ministry since he assumed power in May, the new ministers took charge of their portfolios on Monday.
Expressing deep concern over the recent act of violence against doctors, Vardhan stated that incidents of assault on doctors are reported from different parts of the country and this leads to sudden strike by doctors, gravely affecting the healthcare services.
He also highlighted that the number of active COVID-19 cases in the country are less than 7 lakh and the doubling rate has increased to 97.2 days.
Dave complained of uneasiness at his home on Thursday morning and was rushed to AIIMS.
Across the country, the number of patients in ICU beds is 4,88,861 while 1,70,841 patients were on ventilators and 9,02,291 patients were on oxygen support.
It dropped sitting MP from Guna, Krishnapal Singh Yadav, to field Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia from the seat.
Vardhan also expressed hope about having a vaccine against COVID-19 by the end of this year.
A total of 40,845 cases of black fungus or mucormycosis have been reported in the country so far, of which 31,344 are rhinocerebral in nature, and the death toll from the infections stands at 3,129, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said.
More than 6 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been sent to 76 nations, while 4.5 crore doses have been administered to beneficiaries in the country till now, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said.
Vardhan said the fatality rate is 3.2 per cent while the recovery rate is progressively increasing and stands at 31.74 per cent.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Thursday lodged a police complaint against yoga guru Ramdev, seeking a first information report over his 'dishonest and wrongful representations' on modern medicine.
A total of 15,25,631 tests have been conducted so far across 332 government and 121 private laboratories.
The average age of the new Union council of ministers has reduced to 58 years from 61 years previously following Wednesday's reshuffle.
The Patna and Raipur chapters of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) have lodged complaints in 2021 alleging Ramdev's remarks were likely to cause prejudice to Covid control mechanism and may dissuade people from availing proper treatment.
'The Speaker should have asked Ramesh Bidhuri to withdraw his words and apologise.'
Taking people for ransom and winning business by defaming scientific medicine are unpardonable offenses, the IMA said.
Naidu visited the All India Institute of Medical Sciences to enquire about his former cabinet colleague's health.
He said the government had done everything that was important to handle the COVID-19 situation in the last one year.
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.
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