News Analysis India

Tag: MoHFW

  • Health Ministry tells states, UTs with rising COVID cases to ‘Test, Track and Treat’

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on Saturday urged the states, exhibiting surge in daily new COVID-19 cases and high active caseload, to return to the fundamentals of ‘Test, Track and Treat’.

    According to an official release issued by the ministry, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan and member of NITI Aayog Vinod K. Paul today interacted with Health Secretaries and Managing Directors of National Health Mission of Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Union Territories of Delhi and Chandigarh.

    “These States/UTs have in the recent past seen increased positivity and increased number of daily positive cases,” the release said.

    The officials reviewed the ongoing public health measures of surveillance, containment and management of COVID-19 cases in wake of the steep rise in daily new cases of COVID-19 and the high number of active caseload being reported from these eight States/UTs.

    “These state/UTs have been asked to continue with the effective strategy of ‘Test Track and Treat’ that had yielded rich dividends at the height of the pandemic,” the release said.

    During the meeting, it was pointed out that that 9 districts in Delhi, 15 in Haryana, 10 in Andhra Pradesh, 10 in Odisha, 9 in Himachal Pradesh, 7 in Uttarakhand, 2 in Goa and one district in Chandigarh continue to be of concern as these districts are seeing a decrease in total tests being conducted, low share of RT-PCR tests, increase in weekly positivity and low number of contact tracing of the COVID positive cases.

    These together can pose high risk of transmission to the neighbouring States and UTs.

    The ministry has urged the officials of these states/UTs to increase the share of RT-PCR tests in districts dependent on high levels of antigen testing, to refocus on surveillance and stringent containment of those areas in selected districts which are seeing cluster of cases and carry out an average close contact tracing of minimum of 20 persons per positive case.

    The ministry has also asked them to accelerate the vaccination against the virus for priority population groups in districts reporting higher cases.

    The state and UTs officials have also been asked to promote COVID-appropriate behaviour through communication and enforcement. 

  • Harsh Vardhan visits Delhi’s GTB hospital to review dry run drill of COVID-19 vaccine

    Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan arrived at Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) hospital on Saturday to review the dry run of administering the COVID-19 vaccine.

    He appealed people to not pay attention to rumours regarding the covid vaccine. He further ensured the safety and efficacy of vaccine saying that it is “our priority.”

    The dry run will be conducted by all the States and Union Territories governments from Saturday.

    According to the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW), the objective of the dry run for COVID-19 vaccine introduction is to “assess operational feasibility in the use of COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network (Co-WIN) application in a field environment, to test the linkages between planning and implementation and to identify the challenges and guide the way forward prior to actual implementation”.

    In Delhi, the drive is being conducted at three locations – the Daryaganj primary health centre, the government-run Guru Teg Bahadur hospital, and the private Venkateshwara hospital.

    In Maharashtra, the dry run of administering the COVID19 vaccine will be conducted at District Hospital in Pune.

    “Data of healthcare workers from Maharashtra has been uploaded on CoWIN,” said District Civil Surgeon.

    The first round of the dry run was conducted in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Punjab on 28-29 December 2020 in two districts each where five-session sites with 25 beneficiaries each were identified. No major issues were observed in the operational aspects during this dry run. All States expressed confidence in the operational guidelines and IT platform for large scale programme implementation.

  • India’s COVID-19 tally now at 75.5 Lakh with Coronavirus cases below 50,000 in 24 hrs

    Among other severely affected states, Karnataka has 1,09,283 active cases, while 6,45,825 people have recovered, 10,478 have succumbed to the coronavirus.As per the MoHFW, the number of active cases stand at 7,48,538 while the number of cured/discharged/migrated people stands at 67,33,329. The death toll has reached 1,15,197. With 1,83,456 total active cases, Maharashtra continues to be the worst affected state by COVID-19 in the country.

    While 13,69,810 patients have recovered from the disease in the state, 42,115 have died so far.

    Among other severely affected states, Karnataka has 1,09,283 active cases, while 6,45,825 people have recovered, 10,478 have succumbed to the coronavirus.

  • Active COVID-19 cases drop below 8 lakh mark: Health Ministry

    Union Health Ministry on Saturday announced that the country has reached an unprecedented peak as active cases drop below the 8 lakh mark for the first time in 1.5 months.

    “India scales an unprecedented peak. ACTIVE CASES drop below the 8L mark for the first time in 1.5 months,” Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) said in a tweet.“ This significant achievement is the outcome of Centre-led targetted strategies leading to high number of RECOVERIES and steadily falling number of FATALITIES,” it said in another tweet. ACTIVE CASES drop below the 8L mark for the first time in 1.5 months,” Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) said in a tweet.