Harsh Vardhan holds COVID-19 review meeting, cautions states about winter & festive season

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday reviewed the COVID-19 and public health measures with Health Ministers and senior state officials of nine states. These states included Andhra Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, Haryana, Punjab and Kerala. In the review meeting, Harsh Vardhan cautioned the states that the upcoming winter season and the festive season can pose a threat in the ongoing fight against COVID-19.

Union Health Minister said, "We all are required to be more vigilant for the entire festive season as the 'respiratory virus' spreads rapidly in the winter months." 

READ | Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine Announcement Rocks Global Stock Markets

Harsh Vardhan holds COVID-19 review meeting 

While sharing the nation's journey against COVID-19, Vardhan said that India's testing capacity has been increased to 1.5 million per day. He also mentioned that the number of testing labs in the country has been increased from only 1 in NIV, Pune to 2074. The Health Minister also mentioned the increased number of general, oxygenated and ICU beds at each level of Coronavirus care hierarchy. 

READ | Mumbai Sees 599 New COVID Cases, BMC Bans Cracker-bursting Before Diwali As Precaution

Vardhan added that currently, India has the highest recovery rate and one of the lowest fatality rate across the world. Elaborating the steps taken by the government to promote 'Jan Andolan', like dissemination of the COVID-19 message through caller tune and other IEC activities, he said that 'COVID Appropriate Behaviour' is still the best bet against the infection. It is even easier to follow, he added. 

Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan in the meeting requested the states to focus on 10 key areas in order to contain the spread of the virus and to gain an upper hand over its trajectory. These key areas include targeted testing at market places, workplaces, religious congregations and completion of contact tracing within the first 72 hours. The health ministers of the respective states shared a brief snapshot of the actions taken by the government for containment, surveillance, treatment of Covid positive cases and the best practices that are being followed in the state. 

READ | COVID-19: Delhi Records Over 70 Deaths For Third Straight Day; 5,023 Fresh Cases

COVID-19 situation in India

As the world continues to grapple with COVID-19 infection, India in the last few weeks has witnessed a significant decline in the daily case count and overall active cases. So far, India has recorded over 85,91,730 cases, out of which 79,63,457 have successfully recovered, while 1,27,059 have died. As per the latest updates from MoHFW, in the past 24 hours, 38,073 new cases, 46,084 recoveries and 448 deaths have been reported. Currently, the total number of active cases in the country is 5,01,214. 

READ | Biden Says Goal Is To Reduce COVID-19 Spread And Save Lives