Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday stressed on the need to ensure adequate health infrastructure at the district level and asked officials to maintain coordination regarding this with the states, in view of the prevailing Covid-19 situation. The Prime Minister was chairing a meeting to review the Covid-19 situation in the country through a video conference. “Had extensive discussions on the prevailing Covid-19 situation. Reviewed the preparedness of healthcare infrastructure, the vaccination drive, including for youngsters between 15 and 18, and ensuring continuation on non-Covid healthcare services,” the Prime Minister tweeted.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba and other officials were present at the meeting. The meeting comes as the country reported more than 1.5 lakh new Covid-19 cases on Sunday and the case tally of the Omicron variant of the virus reached 3,623.
On Monday, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will chair a virtual meeting with the health ministers of five states and a union territory to review the Covid-19 situation amid an exponential rise in cases, said official sources.
The meeting held by the Prime Minister assessed the Covid-19 pandemic situation in the country, the ongoing preparedness of health infrastructure and logistics, status of the vaccination campaign and the emergence of the Omicron variant and its public health implications. A detailed presentation highlighting the surge in cases currently being
reported globally was given by the Secretary of Health Ministry. This was followed by the status of Covid-19 in India highlighting various states and districts of concern, based on the surge in cases and high positivity being reported. Further, various efforts made by the Central Government so far in terms of supporting states to manage the upcoming challenge were highlighted. Various predictive scenarios of peak cases were also presented.
The Prime Minister’s Office in its official release said that the support was provided to the states to upgrade health infrastructure, testing capacity, availability of oxygen and ICU beds, and buffer stock of Covid essential drugs under Emergency Covid Response Package (ECRP-II).
The Prime Minister stressed on the need to ensure adequate health infrastructure at the district level. He asked officials to maintain co-ordination regarding this with the states.
The presentation brought attention to India’s consistent efforts towards vaccination campaign, with 31% adolescents aged 15-18 years having been administered with the first dose so far within seven days. Prime Minister noted this achievement and urged to further accelerate the vaccine drive for adolescents in mission mode.
After a detailed discussion, PM Modi directed that intensive containment and active surveillance should continue in clusters reporting higher cases and required technical support be provided to states which are reporting higher cases presently. He highlighted the need to ensure effective usage of masks and physical distancing measures as a new normal to control the spread.
The Prime Minister stressed on the need for effective implementation of home isolation for mild/asymptomatic cases and to disseminate factual information to the community at large.
The Prime Minister said that a meeting with Chief Ministers will be convened to discuss state-specific scenarios, best-practices and the public health response.
He further highlighted the need to ensure continuity of non-Covid health services while managing Covid cases presently. He also spoke about the need to leverage telemedicine to ensure the availability of health-related guidance to people in remote and rural areas.
While conveying his gratitude for the relentless services provided by healthcare workers in managing Covid-19 so far, he said it should be ensured that vaccination coverage through precaution dose for healthcare workers, front line workers should also be taken up in mission mode.
Prime Minister also spoke about the importance for continuous scientific research in testing, vaccines and pharmacological interventions including genome sequencing given that the virus is evolving continuously.
NUMBERS
India reported 159,632 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the daily positivity rate in the country to 10.21%, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday.
Of 3,623 Omicron cases, Maharashtra tops the chart with 1,009 cases, followed by Delhi (513) and Karnataka (441).
The Ministry further said that the active caseload in the country currently stands at 590,611, which accounts for 1.66% of the country’s total number of cases. The weekly positivity rate currently is at 6.77%. As many as 40,863 patients recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours. The cumulative tally of Covid recovered patients now stands at 34,453,603. The recovery rate is at 96.98%. The country also reported 327 new deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 483,790.
CHANGES IN MAHARASHTRA
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government on Sunday revised its Covid-19 restrictions allowing beauty salons and gyms to function at 50% capacity with the services being open to only fully vaccinated people. The state government made a partial modification to its last order issued on 8 January, which is scheduled to come into force from Monday. In its last order, the Maharashtra government had said that beauty salons and gyms in the state would remain completely shut. However, in its latest order, the government said: “Beauty salons shall be grouped with hair cutting salons and shall be allowed to remain open with 50% capacity subject to restrictions mentioned in the table for hair cutting salons.”
In the last order, the government had allowed hair cutting salons to operate at 50% capacity adding that these salons will remain closed from 10 pm to 7 am every day.
The new order also states that in beauty salons, only those activities that do not require the removal of masks by anyone shall be allowed. “Only fully vaccinated persons shall be allowed to use these services. All the staff engaged in operation shall be fully vaccinated,” it read.
“Gyms are allowed to remain open with 50% capacity, subject to the use of masks while performing any activity. Only fully vaccinated persons shall be allowed to use these services. All the staff engaged in operation shall be fully vaccinated,” the government has said.
‘20% DROP IN AIR OPERATIONS’
As Covid-19 cases continue to surge across the country, the aviation sector in the country is feeling the heat. IndiGo airline on Sunday anticipated that around 20% of its current scheduled operations will have to be withdrawn from service. IndiGo further said that it has waived change fees as scores of people are altering their travel plans. In its official statement, IndiGo said, “Owing to the increasing number of Omicron infections, large numbers of IndiGo customers are changing their travel plans. In response to customer needs, IndiGo is waiving change fees and is offering free changes for all new and existing bookings made up to January 31, for flights up to March 31, 2022. With the reduced demand, we will also be selectively withdrawing some of our flights from service.”
The official statement added, “Since our call centre is currently handling a large volume of calls, we are encouraging our customers to use our digital channels where possible. We anticipate that around 20% of our current scheduled operations will be withdrawn from service.”
402 PARLIAMENT STAFF TEST POSITIVE
Soon after 402 staff of Parliament were tested Covid-19 positive ahead of the budget session of the Parliament, Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu has reviewed the situation and directed that necessary measures be taken to contain the spread of the virus among the Secretariat officials and staff, sources said. VP Naidu also directed all officials and staff that 1,300 staff be tested for Covid-19. The recovery of the infected shall be closely monitored. Assistance in hospitalisation and treatment will also be provided if needed. Rajya Sabha Secretariat has reimposed restrictions on the attendance of officials and staff. 50% of the officials and staff below the rank of under secretary or executive officers are required to work from home till the end of this month. They constitute about 65% of the total employees.