India speeds up anti-virus fight, offers vaccines round the clock
‘The government has ended the time constraint to increase the speed of jabs. People of the country can now get vaccinated 24x7 at their convenience,’ tweets health minister Harsha Vardhan
In a bid to speed up the pace of the coronavirus vaccination drive, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday announced that citizens will now be able to take vaccine round the clock as per their convenience.
The minister took to microblogging website Twiter and said: “The government has ended the time constraint to increase the speed of vaccination. Citizens of the country can now get vaccinated 24x7 at their convenience.”
He emphasised that Prime Minister Narendra Modi understands the health of citizens of the country as well as the value of their time. Vardhan and his wife took the vaccine shot at Delhi Heart and Lung Institute on Tuesday.
The announcement comes a day ater Centre directed all the states and union territories to utilize all private hospitals - empanelled under government insurance schemes in full capacity to achieve optimum number of vaccinations.
The nation-wide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 with healthcare workers being inoculated against the virus. Vaccination of the frontline workers began on Feb.2.
The next phase of vaccination commenced on March 1 for those who are over 60 years of age and for people aged 45 and above with specified co-morbid conditions. A total of 1,56,20,749 vaccine doses have been given till now.
Amid a worrying upward trend, India registered 14,989 new coronavirus cases and 98 fatalities in the last 24 hours, which pushed the overall infection tally and death toll to 1,11,39,516 and 1,57,346, respectively, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
As per the Ministry’s data, there are currently 1,70,126 active cases ater 13,123 patients were discharged in a day. According to experts, a number of possibilities which could be atributed to the concerning situation ranging from lax atitude of people towards following Covid protocols to the likeability of “mutations and new strains”, as has been studied by the laboratories involved in virus detection across the country.
In mid-february, officials had said that the average daily new infections oscillated between 9,000 to 12,000, while the deaths were between 78 to 120.
On Feb.9, India had reported 9,110 new cases, the lowest this year so far. In 2020, the lowest 9,633 cases were recorded on June 3.
Tillnow,1,08,12,044personshavebeendischarged. The recovery rate has reduced to 97.06 per cent.
Five states - Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Punjab and Tamil Nadu cumulatively account for 84.16 per cent of the total active cases in the country.
Till now, 1,56,20,749 doses of corona vaccine have been administered in the country since the mass inoculation drive began on January 16.
The third phase of vaccination against COVID-19 pandemic began on Monday covering 27 crore of people above 60 and those above 45 years of age with comorbidities at 10,000 government and over 20,000 private vaccination centres.
While people will be vaccinated free of cost at government hospitals, those taking the shots at private hospitals will have to pay.
Centre has directed all the states and union territories to utilise all private hospitals - empanelled under government insurance schemes in full capacitytoachieveoptimumnumberofvaccination. The decision was taken in a meeting conducted between Union Health Ministry officials and state family and welfare officials.
The ministry said that the meeting was chaired by Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary while Dr R S Sharma, Chairman of Empowered Group on Vaccine Administration (CO-WIN) and member, National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration of COVID-19 (NEGVAC) with Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and Secretaries of States and UTS atended it through video conference.
“They were directed to utilise 100 per cent capacity of all private hospitals empanelled under Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), Central Government Health Scheme ( CGHS), and State Health Insurance Schemes to enable them to effectively function as Covid Vaccination Centers (CVCS),” the ministry said.
“Private hospitals not empanelled under the above mentioned three categories have also been permited to operate as CVCS if they have adequate number of vaccinators, space for observation of the vaccinated, cold chain arrangement and arrangement for management of AEFI. States/uts can proactively make efforts to use these private hospitals as CVCS too,” it added.