News Analysis India

Tag: Union Health Ministry

  • WHO Covid death report ‘baseless’, attempt to ‘tarnish’ India’s image, say health ministers 

    By PTI

    GUJARAT: May 7 (PTI) Health ministers of different states who attended the 14th conference of the Central Council of Health and Family Welfare (CCHFW) have slammed WHO for its estimate of 4.7 million Covid-related deaths in India, saying it is “baseless” and “intended to show the country in a poor light”.

    They said India has a robust, efficient and comprehensive system for registering deaths and all Covid fatalities are systematically recorded transparently following a legal process.

    On Friday, a resolution was passed at the conference strongly objecting to WHO’s estimates of Covid deaths in India.

    ALSO READ | WHO report wrong on four counts: BJP

    It stated the WHO estimate is “unacceptable” to India and the modelling methodology used by the global health body to reach the figure was “flawed”.

    The three-day conference of the CCHFW, an apex advisory body of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, began in Gujarat’s Kevadia on Thursday.

    It was chaired by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

    ALSO READ: CCHFW passes resolution terming WHO’s modelling for India’s COVID death estimate flawed

    Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar questioned the modelling methodology used by WHO to arrive at the death estimate, alleging that it was an attempt to “tarnish” India’s reputation.

    “There is no rationale behind the modelling methodology used by WHO to arrive at the estimate. All health ministers at the conference here have condemned the report and passed a resolution against it. We have urged Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya to convey India’s disappointment to WHO and raise it at higher international forums,” he told PTI.

    “We stand by our numbers because there is a robust, legal and transparent system for data collection and Covid mortality surveillance. It’s a sheer attempt to malign India which has done good work on Covid management. There seems to be a malafide intention behind the report,” Sudhakar said.

    Punjab Health Minister Vijay Singla alleged that WHO’s death estimate was “fabricated” and it has not made a proper calculation to arrive at the figure of 47.4 lakh Covid-related deaths.

    “India has a strong data collection system and there is no reason to doubt its authenticity. The modelling methodology used by the global health body was not scientific,” he said.

    Madhya Pradesh Minister of Medical Education Vishwas Sarang alleged there was a conspiracy to belittle India’s achievements on the COVID-19 front starting from the low mortality rate to the high vaccination coverage.

    “The figures by WHO are erroneous and not based on sound mathematics. All health ministers at the conference rejected the WHO report saying it was not founded on facts,” he said told PTI.

    Sarang said that “20 to 22 health ministers, including those from states not ruled by the BJP, unanimously rejected the WHO report”.

    Echoing similar sentiments, Health Minister of Sikkim M K Sharma and his Bihar counterpart Mangal Pandey alleged that the WHO report was “devoid of facts” and its modelling methodology was “not scientific”.

    It’s a deliberate attempt to portray India in a poor light, they claimed, adding registration of births and deaths in the country is extremely robust and is governed by the decades-old statutory legal framework the Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1969.

    The Union Health Ministry on Thursday strongly objected to the mathematical models used by WHO for projecting excess mortality estimates linked to the pandemic given the availability of authentic data, saying the validity and robustness of the models used and methodology of data collection were questionable.

    India is likely to raise the issue at the World Health Assembly and other multilateral forums, sources in the ministry said.

    “Despite India’s objection to the process, methodology and outcome of this modelling exercise, WHO has released the excess mortality estimates without adequately addressing India’s concerns,” the Union Health Ministry said.

    India had also informed WHO that given the availability of authentic data published through the Civil Registration System by the Registrar General of India, mathematical models should not be used for projecting excess mortality numbers for India.

    “India firmly believes that such robust and accurate data generated through the legal framework of a member state must be respected, accepted and used by WHO rather than relying on less than accurate mathematical projection based on non-official sources of data,” the statement added.

  • Delhi, Bihar government to reimburse Centre for using COVID jabs as free precaution dose

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Delhi and Bihar, which have started administering free Covid precaution doses for the 18-59 year age group, have to reimburse the National Health Authority for using the available stock of jabs provided by the Union government for the purpose, official sources said Friday.

    Following requests from these two states, the Union Health Ministry has made a provision on the CoWIN portal for creating sessions to administer the precaution doses at government COVID vaccination centres, they said.

    They had sought permission from the ministry to use the available stock of COVID vaccine as precaution dose in government vaccination centres free of cost, saying they would reimburse or replenish the stock upon procurement.

    “The Union Health Ministry has agreed to their proposal…But they shall reimburse the cost of the vaccine used for the purpose to the National Health Authority,” an official source said. The Union government had announced that the precaution dose of anti-COVID19 vaccines will be available to everyone aged above 18 years at the private vaccination centres beginning April 10.

    The Delhi government had written to the Union Health Ministry, saying that the uptake of precaution doses at private COVID vaccination centres (CVCs) was not very promising.

    Delhi government’s Principal Secretary, Health, Manisha Saxena had said that to promote the uptake of precaution dose among the 18-59 years age group, the Government of NCT Delhi intends to administer precaution dose for this group in all government CVCs free of cost.

    “In order to give the benefit of precaution dose to all eligible beneficiaries in Delhi, the same will be available for 18 to 59 years age group, free of cost in all government CVCs from April 21,” the Delhi health department said in an order.

    Both online appointments and walk-in facility will be available, it added.

    Bihar’s Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Pratyaya Amrit, had told the Centre, “As the procurement of vaccines may take a few days, we request you to kindly allow the administration of the current stock of vaccines as precaution dose to 18 to 59 years age group which would be later replenished upon procurement by the state.”

    Vaccine majors Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech have decided to cut prices of the precaution dose of their respective COVID-19 vaccines to Rs 225 per shot for private hospitals after discussion with the government.

    The Centre had told the states that the precaution dose will be of the same COVID-19 vaccine like the one used for the administration of the first two doses and that private vaccination centres can charge up to a maximum of Rs 150 per dose as a service charge over and above the cost of the vaccine.

  • Centre writes to five states, asks them to monitor spread of COVID infection amid surge in cases

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: The central government has written to Delhi, Haryana, Mizoram, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh as COVID cases in these states show a rising trend and has asked them to test-track-treat-vaccinate and adhere to COVID appropriate behaviour with special emphasis on wearing of masks in crowded areas.

    In a letter to these states, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said a few states are reporting a higher contribution to India’s cases and higher positivity. He asked the states to “continue monitoring the spread of infection and undertake required steps for prompt and effective management of COVID-19”.

    Bhushan said that the states should monitor clusters of new COVID-19 cases and take containment efforts to cure the spread of infection. Apart from testing, they should also monitor influenza-like illnesses in all health facilities regularly to detect early warning signals of the spread of infection.

    “They should undertake genomic sequencing for prescribed samples of international passengers, collection of samples from sentinel sites (identified health facilities and sewage samples) and local clusters of cases,” it said.

    The ministry also asked the states to “maintain a strict watch and take pre-emptive action to control any emerging spread of infection”. The Centre had written to these five states on April 8 as well when COVID cases had started showing an upward surge.

    In the letter to Delhi’s principal secretary, Manisha Saxena, the union health secretary said it has reported an increase in weekly new cases from 998 new cases in the week ending April 12 to 2,671 new cases in the last week ending April 19. The positivity rate also increased from 1.42 per cent to 3.49 per cent in the previous week in Delhi.

    Haryana reported an increase in weekly new cases from 521 to 1,299. The state also saw a rise in positivity rate from 1.22 per cent to 2.86 per cent.

  • India logs 795 new COVID-19 cases; active cases dip to 12,054: Union Health Ministry

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: With 795 new coronavirus infections reported in a day, India’s total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 4,30,29,839, while the active cases dipped to 12,054, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday.

    The death toll climbed to 5,21,416 with 58 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated. The active cases comprise 0.03 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate remained at 98.76 per cent, the ministry said.

    A reduction of 543 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.17 per cent and the weekly positivity rate was at 0.22 per cent, according to the ministry.

    The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,24,96,369, while the case fatality rate was recorded as 1.21 per cent. The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 184.87 crore.

    India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.

    It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.

  • Surprise inspection at 12 private medical colleges over complaints of lapses, one shut down

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Teams of doctors constituted by the Union Health Ministry carried out surprise inspections at 12 private medical colleges in five cities that were allegedly not conforming to prescribed minimum standard requirements and shut down one of them.

    Show-cause notices have been issued to the rest of the medical colleges and the National Medical Commission (NMC) will decide the further course of action against them, official sources told PTI.

    These surprise inspections were monitored by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, they said.

    During the COVID-19 pandemic, formalities for granting approval and recognition to some colleges were done through video conferencing, after which the ministry has been receiving complaints against some of them.

    “Teams of three to six doctors each were formed by the Union Health Ministry which carried out surprise inspections at 12 medical colleges alleged to have sub-optimal training and teaching programme in Dhule, Jabalpur, Udaipur, Hyderabad and Chennai since January 15 this year,” a health ministry source said.

    Several deficiencies such as fewer patients than what is required to run a medical college, the number of faculties not matching with what was shown on paper and infrastructural lapses were observed during the inspections.

    To maintain the secrecy of the entire exercise, the team members were informed about the college which had to be inspected by them only on the day of the inspection.

    “The health minister briefed the faculty members and created a core team of dedicated officers and officials in the ministry to ensure that the secrecy of the operations is maintained and the inspection of the medical colleges is done as per the prescribed protocol,” the source said.

    “Through this exercise, the health minister has given out a strong message of zero-tolerance towards compromising with the quality of medical education in the country,” the official source said.

    India has more than 650 medical colleges.

    The NMC Act 2019 mandates that medical colleges conform to the minimum standard requirements prescribed by the National Medical Commission (NMC).

    This will be an ongoing exercise under the stewardship of Mandaviya and many more medical colleges will be subjected to surprise inspection, the source said.

  • India logs 1,233 fresh cases of COVID-19, 31 deaths reported

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: With 1,233 new coronavirus infections being reported in a day, India’s total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 4,30,23,215, while the active cases dipped to 14,704, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.

    The death toll climbed to 5,21,101 with 31 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated. The active cases comprise 0.03 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate remained at 98.75 per cent, the ministry said.

    A reduction of 674 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate was recorded as 0.20 per cent and the weekly positivity rate was recorded as 0.25 per cent, according to the ministry.

    India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

    The country crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.

  • India logs 50,407 fresh cases of COVID-19, 804 deaths reported

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: India saw a single day rise of 50,407 coronavirus infections, which took the tally of cases to 4,25,86,544, while the active cases have declined to 6,10,443, according to Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday.

    The death toll has climbed to 5,07,981 with 804 daily fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated. The daily COVID-19 cases are being recorded at less than one lakh for the last six consecutive days. The active cases comprise 1.43 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has further improved to 97.37 per cent, the ministry said.

    It said a reduction of 87,359 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate has been recorded at 3.48 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate has been recorded at 5.07 per cent, according to the ministry.

    The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has increased to 4,14,68,120, while the case fatality rate has been recorded at 1.19 per cent. The cumulative doses administered so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 172.29 crore.

    50,407 #COVID19 cases, 1,36,962 recoveries and 804 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.Express Photo | @KanchiMadhav pic.twitter.com/bDy91G5Vhx
    — The New Indian Express (@NewIndianXpress) February 12, 2022
    India had crossed two crore cases on May 4 and three crore cases on June 23. The 804 new fatalities include 492 from Kerala and 63 from Maharashtra.

    A total of 5,07,981 deaths have been reported so far in the country, including 1,43,355 from Maharashtra, 61,626 from Kerala, 39,575 from Karnataka, 37,887 from Tamil Nadu, 26,047 from Delhi, 23,382 from Uttar Pradesh and 20,965 from West Bengal.

    The health ministry said that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities. “Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

  • Postpone NEET PG 2022 by 6-8 weeks: Health Ministry tells NBE

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Union Health Ministry has asked the National Board of Examinations (NBE) to postpone NEET PG 2022 by six to eight weeks since it clashes with the NEET PG 2021 counselling.

    On January 25, six MBBS graduates had filed a plea in the Supreme Court seeking postponement of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) scheduled on March 12 for admissions in postgraduate medical courses, claiming that many MBBS graduates would not be able to take up the examination due to non-completion of the mandatory internship period.

    Dr B Srinivas, Assistant Director General (Medical Education) and Member Secretary of the Medical Counselling Committee, in a communication sent to Dr M Bajpai, executive director of NBE, said that a lot of representations were being received from medical doctors requesting to postpone the NEET-PG 2022 examination as it was clashing with the NEET PG 2021 counselling.

    Also, many of the interns would not be able to participate in the PG counselling 2022 in May-June, Srinivas said.

    “Keeping the above facts in view, the HFM (ministry of health and family welfare) has taken the decision to postpone NEET PG 2022 by 6-8 weeks or suitably. Hence, the decision made by HFM may be complied with,” the communication sent on February 3 stated.

  • Give health details in self-declaration form: Centre brings new rules for international travellers

    By Express News Service

    BENGALURU: The Union Health Ministry has issued fresh guidelines for international passengers to be in force from January 22. As per the guidelines, all international air travellers should submit in self-declaration form factual details of their health before travel on the Air Suvidha portal, including the last 14 days’ travel history.

    Uploading a negative RT-PCR report not older than 72 hours of their travel is mandatory. Air travellers are also directed to give an undertaking on the portal or to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, before their journey. Those who need test on arrival, should preferably pre-book it on the Air Suvidha portal.

    Passengers arriving from high-risk countries should submit their samples on arrival and await the report at the airport before taking any connecting flights. Those who test negative must follow a strict seven-day home quarantine and undertake RT-PCR test on the eighth day.

    Information regarding their health condition must be uploaded on the Air Suvidha portal along with the test report of the eighth day. For the next seven days, they must monitor their health and if found positive, their samples must be sent for genome sequencing.

    The guidelines also stated that two percent of the total flight passengers should undergo post-arrival testing randomly on arrival at the airport. The passengers of each flight shall be identified by the airlines concerned and the same quarantine rules as those arriving from high-risk countries will apply. International air travellers arriving from sea and land ports will also have to follow the same procedure for testing and quarantine.

  • Nearly 136 crore Covid vaccine doses administered in India: Government

    The daily vaccination tally is expected to increase with the compilation of the final reports for the day by late night, the Union health ministry said.