News Analysis India

Tag: Pandemic

  • Number of people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 surpasses those partially vaccinated: Union Health Minister

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The number of fully vaccinated individuals against COVID-19 has surpassed the partially vaccinated eligible population for the first time in the country, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Wednesday.

    This feat has been made possible due to the prime minister’s vision of ‘Jan-Bhagidari’ and “Whole of Government Approach”, people’s faith and confidence in the government, and the ongoing ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ campaign which has seen a tremendous response from various parts of the country, Mandaviya said.

    “In a significant achievement to the nationwide vaccination coverage for the country, for the first time the number of fully vaccinated individuals has surpassed those who have been administered only a single dose of vaccine,” the minister said in a statement.

    The country has in total administered over 113.68 crore doses, according to the provisional report at 7 am. This has been achieved through 1,16,73,459 sessions. Out of which, 75,57,24,081 doses were administered as first dose and 38,11,55,604 doses were administered as second dose.

    The number of fully vaccinated individuals (38,11,55,604) exceeds those who have been administered a single dose (37,45,68,477), the minister said. The Union Health Minister congratulated the collective spirit of the country on this achievement. In a tweet, he appealed to all eligible citizens to get vaccinated.

    “We will win the battle against COVID-19 together,” he stated.

    The Union Health Minister expressed confidence that the country will have vaccinated every Indian by the end of the month-long ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ campaign, according to the statement.

    “The staunch political commitment of the Government of India to protect every citizen from COVID-19 through vaccination has enabled the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive to achieve several feats ever since its inception on January 16, 2021.

    “The nation achieved the distinction of having administered 100 crore doses on October 21. Subsequently, the prime minister gave a clarion call and launched the ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ campaign on November 3 to knock at every door and reach out to every household and immunise every citizen against COVID-19 in the spirit of Antyodaya,” Mandaviya said.

    The month-long ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ vaccination campaign aims to ensure that all the adult population is covered with the first dose of vaccine, while those who are due for the second doses are motivated to take the second dose.

    Healthcare workers are conducting door-to-door vaccinations of eligible people across India with a special focus on districts where less than 50 per cent of the eligible population has been vaccinated, the statement said.

    The Union Health Minister also assured people that there was no shortage of vaccine doses in the country and urged them to come forward for the second dose, and motivate those in their family and community to take both the doses.

  • Vaccine hesitancy seen in Muslim areas, Maharashtra government to rope in Salman to promote inoculation: Minister

    By PTI

    JALNA: Maharashtra Public Health Minister Rajesh Tope has said there was hesitancy about taking anti-coronavirus vaccines in Muslim-dominated areas, and the government will take the help of Bollywood superstar Salman Khan to convince people to take the jab.

    Maharashtra is leading in terms of the number of vaccine shots administered, but in some areas the pace of vaccination is low, Tope said, speaking to reporters here on Monday.

    “There is still some hesitancy in Muslim-dominated areas. We have decided to use Salman Khan and religious leaders to convince the Muslim community to take the vaccine,” he said.

    “Religious leaders and film actors wield great influence and people listen to them,” he added. Over 10.25 crore vaccine doses have been administered in the state so far, and by the end of November all eligible persons will have received at least the first dose, the minister said.

    About the possibility of a third wave of the viral infection, Tope said as per the experts, the pandemic has a seven-month cycle, but due to large-scale vaccination, the next wave would not be severe. People should follow the COVID safety protocol and get vaccinated, he added.

  • Health Minister suggests stickers be given to notify fully vaccinated status of families

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday suggested that stickers for houses to notify completion of both doses of COVID-19 vaccines should be given to fully vaccinated families to encourage uptake of vaccine among the population.

    The minister made the suggestion during a meeting on Tuesday with non-government organisations, civil society outfits and development partners to take the “Har Ghar Dastak” Covid vaccination campaign across the length and breadth of the country, according to a Union Health Ministry statement.

    Mandaviya noted that ‘Jan-Bhagidari’ (people’s participation) is essential for such a mammoth exercise like India’s vaccination program.

    “India stood tall in COVID-19 crisis because of the initiative of non-government organisations and civil society organisations which supplemented the efforts of the government to ensure that nobody went to sleep on an empty stomach during the Covid lockdown,” he stated.

    The minister also noted their contribution in ensuring that 80 per cent of the population and 40 per cent of the population received their first and second dose of the vaccine respectively, according to the statement.

    Involvement of all stakeholders working according to their expertise and capacity to achieve a collective goal is the very essence of democracy,” Mandaviya said as he interacted with representatives of various stakeholders helping the government in furthering the reach and coverage of vaccination.

    Giving the example of developed countries whose health system and healthcare delivery have been exhausted with multiple waves of COVID-19, the Union Health Minister stressed for the completion of the COVID-19 vaccination drive with 100 per cent administration of both the doses as an immediate necessity to end the pandemic in India, the statement stated.

    “We have to all ensure that everybody is vaccinated,” he stated. The partners at the meeting were exhorted to work towards generating community awareness and transforming the vaccination exercise into a ‘Jan Andolan’ (public movement).

    The importance of second dose in protecting from serious illness and hospitalisation was flagged as an essential component of communication, the ministry said in the statement.

    Mandaviya suggested the partners to identify an area according to their capacity and saturate vaccination among all the inhabitants there.

    He also suggested that stickers notifying completion of both doses of vaccines be given to families to encourage uptake of vaccine among the population, the statement said.

    The partners were asked to disseminate information on the campaign through NGO/CSO social media channels, use of audio-visual content for posting and amplifying positive messages, invigorating advocacy with leading medical professionals at the national, state or district level for positive messaging around COVID-19 vaccination, it said.

    The partners were also asked to dispel myths, misconceptions, and doubts related to the COVID-19 vaccine, support on-site mobilisation of beneficiaries, participate in state, district and block level task forces for overall support in planning and implementation of COVID-19 vaccination drive, the statement said.

    Non-government organisations and civil society outfits also shared innovative steps being taken to ensure saturation of vaccination, especially in low-performing localities. The cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country have crossed 113 crore.

  • Mizoram reports 611 new COVID-19 cases, single-day positivity rate 11.30 per cent

    By PTI

    AIZWAL: Mizoram’s COVID-19 tally surged to 1,29,386 as 611 more people tested positive for the infection while one new fatality pushed the death toll to 463, a statement issued by the Information and Public Relations department said on Tuesday.

    The single-day positivity rate dipped to 11.30 per cent from 15.90 per cent the previous day, as the 611 new cases were detected from 5,411 samples tested, it said.

    The new cases were reported from 11 districts including Aizawl (310), Lunglei (74), and Serchhip (55). A 78-year-old man in Aizawl district succumbed to the COVID-19 infection, the statement said. The state now has 5,185 active COVID-19 cases, while 1,23,738 people have recovered from the disease, including 849 in the last 24 hours, it said.

    The COVID-19 recovery rate now is 95.97 per cent and the fatality rate is 0.35 per cent. The northeastern state has so far tested 13.78 lakh samples for COVID-19. According to state Immunisation officer Dr Lalzawmi, over 7 lakh people have been inoculated till Monday, of which 5.37 lakh beneficiaries have received both doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

  • SC to hear on November 18 plea seeking hybrid option in ensuing board examinations

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Monday said it would hear on November 18 a plea seeking directions to the CBSE and the CISCE to issue a revised circular for conducting the ensuing class 10 and 12 board examinations in hybrid mode instead of offline mode only amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The plea, filed by six students who would be appearing in the ensuing board examinations, came up for hearing before a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and C T Ravikumar. The bench said the plea would be heard along with a pending petition on November 18.

    Senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, appearing for the petitioners, told the bench that the matter requires urgent consideration as board examinations would commence from Tuesday.

    The bench, which observed that the pending petition was listed for hearing in January next year, took note of the submissions and said it would prepone the hearing on that plea and both the matters would be taken up this week.

    When the counsel appearing for the petitioners said the plea pending in the apex court has raised some different issues, the bench said, “We will see that on Thursday (November 18). If the issue is same, it will be heard together”.

    The top court granted liberty to the petitioners to serve an advance copy of the plea to the respondents, including the standing counsel for the CBSE.

    The bench also heard a separate petition which has raised the issue related to the results in improvement examination conducted by the CBSE.

    The court asked the counsel appearing for the petitioners to serve the advance copy of the plea to the standing counsel for the CBSE as well as the central agency and posted the matter for hearing on November 22.

    The plea, seeking a hybrid option in the ensuing board examination, has claimed that the entire exercise of the boards in conducting the term one or semester one examinations in offline mode only is”patently unreasonable”.

    As per the date sheet announced by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the term one board exams would commence from November 16.

    Semester one of the board examination of the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) would commence from November 22.

    The plea, filed through advocate Sumanth Nookala, said that the ensuing exams be conducted in hybrid mode with an option to choose between offline and online examinations.

    “Consent assumes significance as exams directly relate to the mental health of the petitioners requiring a conducive and voluntary atmosphere to ensure a fair assessment. It is common knowledge that the third wave of COVID pandemic is predicted,” it said.

    The petition claimed that the proposed current system of offline examination is “fraught with bad planning and lack of application of mind” which will further adversely prejudice the students.

    “Even if the respondents (boards and others) wanted to conduct the examinations on the said dates, it had sufficient time and resources to plan it carefully and consider the concerns raised in the present petition,” it said.

  • Bengal doctors write to Mandaviya for COVID booster dose

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: A doctors’ forum in West Bengal wrote to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Saturday requesting quick roll out of a booster dose programme for front line warriors fighting COVID-19 expressing apprehension that the efficacy of the two jabs which are being administered now will “not go further over time”.

    The West Bengal Doctors Forum (WBDF) in its two-page letter to Mandaviya cited studies stating that administration of booster doses is an effective measure to prevent COVID infection by maintaining the vaccine efficacy.

    “We are all aware that efficacy of vaccines goes no further over time and due to that numerous healthcare workers may contract the disease in their dutyline. There are studies which say that the administration of booster dose will be an effective measure to prevent COVID infection by maintaining the vaccine efficacy,” Rajib Pandey and Punyabrata Gun of the Forum said in the communication.

    “At present, the number of active COVID cases in our country is low and under this circumstance on behalf of medical fraternity, we appeal to you and your good office to issue an early advisory to commence the booster dose vaccination programme for COVID-19 for all healthcare workers and frontline warriors as early as possible,” the letter read.

    Relentless services are being provided by innumerable doctors, nurses and other healthcare personnel as well as by frontline workers like the police, the missive said and pressed for prompt compensation to the kin of the members of the medical fraternity who have died fighting COVID-19 without any delay”.

    “We do not know how many warriors will lay their lives until an effective prevention and vaccination programme is proactively enforced by the administration. All frontline health workers fought from the front and many of them sacrificed their lives, though their families remain in utter dismay due to the impermissible losses. A prompt compensation for the kin of the deceased members of the medical fraternity without any delay is also the need of the hour,” it said.

    In West Bengal at least 8,06,30,430 doses have been administered till Friday, state health department statistics said.

  • Maharashtra: One more blaze, same old woes as Covid patients die in hospitals

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: The fire in the ICU of a hospital in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district is one more in a series of devastating blazes in the state, claiming lives of coronavirus patients.

    Eleven Covid patients being treated in the ICU died in the blaze in the district hospital at Ahmednagar on Saturday.

    On April 23 this year, when the second wave of the pandemic was at its peak, 13 Covid patients died as fire engulfed the ICU of the Vijay Vallabh Hospital in Virar, around 60 km from Mumbai.

    There were 90 patients in the hospital, 18 of them in the ICU, when the fire broke out after a blast in the AC unit. The dead included six women and eight men.

    Ten coronavirus patients died in a fire at a hospital in the eastern suburb of Bhandup in Mumbai on March 26. The fire broke out in Dreams Mall, which housed a Covid-designated hospital.

    It raged for over 40 hours. The dead included those on ventilator support. As many as 24 Covid patients on life support died at the civic hospital in Nashik on April 21 after a leak in the medical oxygen tank.

    The leakage from an oxygen tank caused disruption in oxygen supply for around 30 minutes, which led to the deaths of patients who were on oxygen support. All the victims were on ventilators and in need of constant oxygen supply. Around 150 patients were either oxygen-dependent or on ventilators.

    The year began on a tragic note when 10 infants died in a fire at a special new-born care unit of the Bhandara district hospital on January 9. Seventeen infants, aged one to three months, were in the ward at the time of the tragedy.

    A probe panel had suggested that trained engineers should be employed at government hospitals that mainly rely on the public works department (PWD) for maintenance work.

    The six-member committee, comprising health officials, electrical engineers and fire officials, found that the fire in the sick newborn care unit (SNCU) of the Bhandara district general hospital spread from a radiant warmer and electrical wiring system connected to it in the “outborn section”.

    On April 28, four patients were killed after a fire broke out at the private Prime Criticare Hospital at Kausa in Mumbra locality near Thane. The hospital had no Covid patients. In April this year, a major fire broke out in a building housing a private Covid care centre in Chandwad town in Nashik district.

    Around 22 patients admitted at the facility were shifted to the sub-district hospital in the town as a precaution.

  • News of loss of lives in fire at Ahmednagar hospital is painful: Rahul Gandhi

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said it was painful to see the loss of lives following a fire at a hospital in Ahmednagar in Maharashtra and urged party workers to help in relief work.

    He also sent his condolences to the families of those killed in the fire. At least 10 coronavirus patients were killed and one person suffered serious burn injuries after a major fire broke out in the ICU of the district civil hospital in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar city on Saturday, officials said.

    The blaze erupted around 11 am in the intensive care unit (ICU), where 20 COVID-19 patients were undergoing treatment, they said. “The news of fire in Ahmednagar hospital is painful. My condolences to the families of those who lost their lives. I appeal to Congress workers to help in the relief work,” the former Congress president said in a post on Facebook.

  • Over 15.69 crore balance, unutilised COVID-19 vaccine doses still available with states/UTs: Government

    More than 15.69 crore (15,69,46,111) balance and unutilised covid vaccine doses are still available with the states/UTs to be administered.

  • Maharashtra CM orders probe into Ahmednagar hospital fire that killed 10 Covid-19 patients

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday ordered an in-depth inquiry into the fire at Ahmednagar civil hospital, which claimed the lives of 10 COVID-19 patients.

    Expressing grief over the tragedy, Thackeray directed the administration to ensure that those responsible for it get strict punishment.

    The blaze erupted in the ICU of the Ahmednagar hospital around 11 am on Saturday and killed 10 patients, who were undergoing treatment against coronavirus. It also left one patient critical, officials said.

    On learning about the incident, Thackeray spoke to district guardian minister Hassan Mushrif and state chief secretary Sitaram Kunte, and asked them to ensure that other patients admitted there should get proper treatment without any disturbance, a statement from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said.

    “The CM said the probe will be done by the district collector and the report should be submitted to the government,” it said.