PM Modi launched the nationwide COVID vaccination campaign in January this year.
New Delhi:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today chaired a high level meeting to review the situation related to COVID-19 in the country and the vaccination campaign to fight the pandemic. The session comes amid discussions of a possible third wave in the country in September and October.
Topics covered in today’s meeting included review of the prevailing COVID-19 scenario, preparedness of health systems for response, availability of medical oxygen and matters relating to production, supply and distribution of vaccines, according to a press information bureau release.
The government said the Prime Minister was briefed about the augmentation of healthcare infrastructure in the country. According to him, he reviewed the production, supply and pipeline of vaccine manufacturing over the next few months.
“The Prime Minister reviewed the status of enhancement of bed capacity for pediatric care and facilities supported under ‘COVID Emergency Response Package II’,” the PIB release said.
He said that about one lakh oxygen concentrators and three lakh oxygen cylinders have been distributed among the states.
PM Modi also spoke about the need for continuous genome sequencing to monitor the emergence of mutants.
According to a Reuters report, in the past few months, India has added many more hospital beds and imported more than 100 oxygen carriers, taking the total to about 1,250. The Center has approved the construction of about 1,600 oxygen-generating plants in hospitals, though fewer than 300 were installed early last month because imports take time.
Efforts are on to install 961 liquid medical oxygen storage tanks and 1,450 medical gas pipeline systems to support at least one such unit per district, the PIB release said.
Almost all states are preparing special pediatric wards as some experts have warned that uninfected children could be vulnerable to any new virus mutations, the news agency reported.
“On vaccines, the Prime Minister was apprised that about 58 per cent of India’s adult population has received the first dose and about 18 per cent of India’s adult population has received the second dose. They need to be provided with the vaccine pipeline and increased supply of vaccines. was updated about. ,” the release said.
India recorded 34,973 new coronavirus cases yesterday, a decline of 19 per cent over the previous day. The country’s active caseload accounts for 1.18 per cent of the total cases at 3,31,74,954.
It was discussed in today’s meeting that there are countries across the world where the number of active COVID cases is high. In India too, data from states like Maharashtra and Kerala show that there can be no room for complacency, the PIB release said. However, for the 10th week in a row, the weekly positivity remained less than 3%.
“The Prime Minister talked about the need to ensure adequate testing across the country. The officials informed him about the support being extended to 433 districts for setting up RT-PCR laboratory facility in public health facilities,” the release said. “
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