PM Modi Chairs High-Level Meet To Review Covid Situation, Calls For Constant Genome Sequencing

The meeting, chaired by PM Modi, was attended by several Union Ministers, officials of the Health Ministry and others.

New Delhi: In the view of alarming Covid surge in few districts of the country and to keep a track of the ongoing vaccination drive in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday chaired a high-level meeting, news agency PTI reported citing government sources. 

The meeting was attended by several Union Ministers, officials of the Health Ministry and others.

During the meeting, PM Modi was informed about the states being asked to maintain a buffer stock for drugs used in management of Covid-19, Mucormycosis, MIS-C at the district level, PMO said in a statement. 

The Prime Minister reviewed the status of augmentation of bed capacity for pediatric care and augmentation of facilities under 'COVID Emergency Response Package II'. 

He even discussed that States have been advised to redesign and orient primary care and block-level health infra to manage situations in rural areas.

As the Prime Minister spoke about the need for constant genome sequencing to monitor the emergence of Covid mutants, officials informed him that INSACOG, consisting of 28 labs across the country, is also linked with a hospital network for clinical correlation. 

PM Modi was also told that states are also being asked to maintain a buffer stock for drugs used in management of Covid-19, Mucormycosis, MIS-C at the district level

The Prime Minister chaired the meeting amid SOPs issued by several state governments in the view of upcoming festive season. Several states such as Kerala and Maharashtra continue to witness a sharp spike in daily cases of Coronavirus.

On Thursday, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said India is still going through the second wave of COVID-19 and it is not over yet. During a press conference, Bhushan pointed out that 35 districts are still reporting a weekly Covid positivity rate of over 10 per cent while it is between five to 10 per cent in 30 districts.

The Health Ministry also cautioned the masses against the upcoming festive season starting Friday with the Ganesh Chaturthi and urged them to avoid mass gatherings and celebrate the occasions at a low-key level.

India's Vaccination Drive

As per recent data shared by Health Ministry, more than half of India's adult population has received at least one dose of Coronavirus vaccine, whereas 18 per cent got both shots. The total number of jabs administered in the country crossed 72 crore.

Additionally, 99 per cent of the healthcare workers have received the first dose while 84 per cent got the second dose. While all frontline workers have been administered the first dose, 80 per cent of them have been given the second dose.

India's Covid Tally

The country on Friday reported 34,973 fresh COVID-19 cases, 37,681 recoveries, and 260 deaths in the last 24 hours. With this, India's active caseload stands at 3,90,646. 

Kerala alone accounted for 68.59 per cent of total cases in the last week. On Thursday, the state reported 26,200 fresh coronavirus cases and 125 deaths which pushed the total infections in the state to 43,09,694 and the fatalities till now to 22,126.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra reported 4,219 new coronavirus infections and 55 fatalities on Thursday. It took the tally of infections in the state to 64,87,025 and the death toll to 1,38,017.