Coronavirus HIGHLIGHTS: Health Minister Mandaviya Reviews Status Of Medicines And Drugs With Pharma Companies
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RT-PCR test made mandatory for flyers coming from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand from 1st January 2023. They will have to upload their reports on the Air Suvidha portal before travel: Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya
India reported 268 fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hours against 188 cases reported on the previous day, said the Union Health Ministry.
The active caseload stands at 3,552 cases, accounting for 0.01 % of the country's total positive cases.
The government has started close monitoring of exports of products used to deal with Covid infections such as PPE kits, masks, ventilators and certain medicines like paracetamol on account of rising infections in various countries, including China, an official said.
The move is aimed at dealing with any possible emergency situation on account of a spurt in coronavirus cases.
"We are keeping a close watch on exports of all these products. We are monitoring the situation to take appropriate decisions, though the situation at present is not alarming. We should be prepared for everything and for that our domestic requirement should be ready,” the official said.
“We have started collecting data on a daily basis for monitoring purposes for products like PPE kits, syringes, gloves, certain medicines like Remdesivir and paracetamol,” the official added.
The issue came up at a recently held inter-ministerial preparatory meeting attended by senior officials from different ministries including commerce, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, health, and textiles.
In 2020, to deal with the outbreak of the pandemic, the government had imposed restrictions and prohibitions on exports of products such as PPE kits, sanitisers, gloves, testing kits, syringes, Remdesivir and formulations made from paracetamol.
Official sources on Wednesday cautioned that the next 40 days will be crucial as India may see a Covid surge in January.
As Covid gets back on the radar with a surge in China and people worry about another wave in India, some scientists have called for a reality check.
The government has already sounded an alert and asked states and Union Territories to prepare for any eventuality.
Following the surge, the government made random coronavirus testing mandatory for two per cent of passengers arriving in each international flight from Saturday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya have held meetings to assess the country's preparedness to deal with a fresh surge in cases.
Mock drills were held at health facilities across India on Tuesday to check operational readiness to deal with any spurt in COVID-19 infection, with Mandaviya saying the country has to remain alert and prepared as cases are rising in the world. The latest spike in cases is being driven by Omicron sub-variant BF.7.
China has been witnessing thousands of cases daily in the last few weeks. On Wednesday, India logged 188 new coronavirus infections with a daily positivity rate of 0.14 per cent and the weekly positivity rate recorded at 0.18 per cent, the Union Health Ministry has said. PTI
The West Bengal government on Wednesday decided to write to the Centre to request for more COVID vaccines and testing kits, a senior official said.
Along with five lakh doses of nasal vaccines, the state government has decided to request the Union government to send one lakh doses of Covaxin and 15 lakh doses of Covishield, he said.
Keeping in mind the warnings of a probable COVID surge, the state government issued guidelines for hospitals and directed them to set up COVID wards in medical establishments where such facilities are unavailable.
The decisions were taken during a virtual meeting chaired by Chief secretary H K Dwivedi with the district magistrates and senior officials of the state health department.
The official said that hospitals were asked to keep beds ready keeping in mind critical and very critical patients.
Meanwhile, nine fresh cases were reported in the state on Wednesday, taking the tally to 21,18,606, a health bulletin said.
The toll remained unchanged at 21,532 as no fresh fatalities were reported.
The number of active cases rose to 58 as four more people were cured of the disease, taking the total number of recoveries to 20,97,016.
A total of 4,652 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, it added. PTI SCH ACD ACD
3 international passengers were found positive. The three had returned from Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, and Dubai last night.
State government doing random testing at the airport. All are shifted to Bowring Hospital in Bengaluru. All 3 samples sent for genome sequence test.
Delhi logged 13 fresh COVID-19 cases on Wednesday with a positivity rate of 0.33 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department here.
No Covid-related death was reported, it said.
The national capital had reported 16 fresh COVID-19 cases on Tuesday with a positivity rate of 0.44 per cent.
Delhi reported seven cases on Monday with a positivity rate of 0.39 per cent.
On Tuesday, mock drills were conducted at various hospitals in Delhi to assess their preparedness, including availability of beds and manpower, to deal with any increase in the number of Covid cases.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the health portfolio, visited the Delhi government-run Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital to assess the drill, and asserted that the city government-run hospitals are "fully equipped" to fight any surge in Covid cases.
With the fresh cases, the national capital's COVID-19 tally has risen to 2,007,188. The death toll remained unchanged at 26,521, the data showed.
The fresh cases came out of 3,959 tests conducted the previous day, the health department bulletin stated.
Delhi had logged five cases with a positivity rate of 0.19 per cent and one death on December 21. The city government had not released Covid bulletin from December 23 to 25.
Only 10 of the 8,311 beds are occupied at present in dedicated COVID-19 hospitals in the city, while 20 patients are under home isolation, the latest bulletin said.
The number of active cases in the national capital stands at 35, down from 39 on Tuesday it said.
The Delhi government on Monday had approved a budget of Rs 104 crore for hospitals to procure general medicines as part of preparations to deal with emergency situations amid a surge in Covid cases in some countries.
At a review meeting, Sisodia had directed the heads of government hospitals to share details of beds, ventilators, ICUs, human resources, oxygen plants, and medical logistics with the health department.
Officials also began visiting all government hospitals in Delhi to ascertain their preparedness to deal with any eventuality, authorities said. PTI
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will visit the airport in Delhi on Thursday to take stock of testing and screening facilities there, PTI reported.
US announces new COVID-19 testing requirement for travellers from China because of surge in infections there, reports AP
Background
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The government is likely to make it mandatory for passengers arriving from China and five other places to have negative RT-PCR reports from next week, official sources told PTI. They also cautioned that the next 40 days will be crucial as India may see a Covid surge in January.
The officials said filling up of 'air suvidha' forms and 72-hour prior RT-PCR testing may be made mandatory from next week for international passengers coming from China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore.
At least 39 international passengers were found positive for COVID-19 out of the 6,000 tested on arrival in the last two days.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will visit the airport in Delhi on Thursday to take stock of testing and screening facilities there, PTI reported.
The government has already sounded an alert and asked states and Union territories to prepare for any eventuality.
Following the surge, the government made random coronavirus testing mandatory for two per cent of passengers arriving in each international flight from Saturday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Health Minister Mandaviya have held meetings to assess the country's preparedness to deal with a fresh surge in cases.
Mock drills were held at health facilities across India on Tuesday to check operational readiness to deal with any spurt in COVID-19 infection, with Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya saying the country has to remain alert and prepared as cases are rising in the world.
The latest spike in cases is being driven by Omicron sub-variant BF.7. A person infected with the sub-variant can further infect 16 persons.
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