India’s Health Minister Highlights Need for Community Awareness, COVID-Appropriate Behaviour Ahead of Festive Season
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(KK Choudhary/TOI, BCCL, Mumbai)
With the emergence of new Omicron variants leading many countries to witness a steep rise in COVID cases, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday stressed monitoring the points of entry and highlighted the need for community awareness for continued implementation of the COVID Appropriate Behaviour (CAB), especially in view of the upcoming festival season.
Chairing a review meeting with public health experts and officials, including Dr V.K. Paul, Member(Health), NITI Aayog, on the present COVID-19 pandemic situation in the country, the status of vaccination drive, and the global scenario of new variants of COVID-19, he stressed on the need to undertake adequate testing (with a higher proportion of RT-PCR tests) and effective surveillance to assess and control the spread of infection promptly.
Mandaviya directed the officials to continue to focus on surveillance across the country, particularly through sentinel sites, including monitoring of SARI and ILI cases and on Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) to scan for any possible mutation in the wake of the identification of Omicron variants in other countries.
He also urged officials to monitor hospitalisations due to COVID-19 closely and increase the pace of vaccination, including precautionary doses to the eligible beneficiaries.
Additional Secretary Health Lav Agarwal made a detailed presentation on the global scenario of the surge in COVID cases, primarily in Europe and an analysis of various Omicron variants worldwide. The presentation included a detailed analysis of the COVID-19 situation in the country with the trend of COVID-19 cases, daily cases being reported, active cases, case positivity and testing status along with state-wise weekly tests per million, including the share of RT-PCR in tests conducted.
Additional Secretary of Health, Dr Manohar Agnani, gave a presentation on the current status of vaccination in the country, availability of vaccines, and state-wise analysis of vaccine administration and highlighted the slow pace of administration of precautionary doses in the country.
The meeting was also attended by the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Govt, Dr Ajay Kumar Sood, Pharmaceutical Secretary S. Aparna, ICMR DG Dr Rajiv Bahl, and other senior officials of the Health Ministry.
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The above article has been published from a wire source with minimal modifications to the headline and text.
