PM takes stock of vaccination drive as new Covid variant hangs like spectre

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took stock of the country's ongoing vaccination drive amidst the fear of a third wave looming large due to the new COVID variant. During the high-level meeting, the PM was briefed about the vaccination of age groups, frontline workers and informed about the vaccine supply in the following months, writes ETV Bharat's Deputy News Editor Krishnanand Tripathi.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday chaired a high-level meeting to take stock of the country’s ongoing vaccination drive, which aims to cover all adult Indians by the end of the year and also reviewed the Covid situation in the country, said the Prime Minister’s Office. “Officials gave a detailed presentation to the PM on the progress of vaccination in the country. The Prime Minister was also briefed about the age-wise vaccination coverage,” the PMO said in a statement. Officials said Prime Minister Modi was also briefed about the vaccine coverage among healthcare workers, frontline workers and the general population in various states. The Prime Minister was also informed about the vaccine supply in the coming months and the efforts being made to increase production.

PM reviews vaccination drive

The meeting comes a day after India’s health ministry confirmed that there were 49 cases of infection by a new and deadlier version of novel coronavirus, known as delta plus variant, which is a further mutation of the delta variant which was first discovered in the country late last year. The delta variant, officially known as B.1.617.2, was primarily responsible for the second wave that killed more than 2,36,000 people in the country since the start of March this year, accounting for nearly 60% of the total Covid deaths since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 when the first Covid death was reported in the state of Karnataka.

However, the emergence of the delta plus variant in 10 states of the country has heightened the risk of a possible third wave in the coming months, forcing the government and health officials to ramp up the third phase of the national vaccination drive that started on June 21. On June 6, Prime Minister Modi announced that under the new policy the cost of vaccinating all adult Indians at government health facilities would be borne by the Union government while people taking the jab at private hospitals will have to bear the expenses.

Read: EXCLUSIVE: Vaccination is key, Covid third wave won't be severe, says Dr Anurag Agarwal

The announcement followed severe criticism from the opposition parties that blamed the Centre for delaying the bulk order for vaccines which led to the second Covid wave and a rebuke from the top court of the country, which dubbed the Centre’s vaccination policy for 18-44 year age group as ‘arbitrary and irrational.

More than 37 million doses given in 6 days

Prime Minister’s Office said 37.7 million doses have been administered in the last 6 days, which is more than the entire population of countries like Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Canada. According to the official dashboard, it took the total number of vaccine doses administered so far in the country to over 315 million doses with more than 6 million doses administered on Saturday.

Read: Delta Plus is more deadlier than Covid 19, know what this new variant is all about

In the meeting, the Prime Minister was informed that 128 districts in the country have vaccinated more than 50% of the 45+ population and 16 districts have vaccinated more than 90% of the 45+ population. “PM expressed satisfaction at the rising speed of vaccinations in this week and stressed that it is important to carry this momentum forward,” officials said. Officers briefed the Prime Minister that they were in touch with state governments to explore and implement innovative methods to reach people for vaccination. The Prime Minister told officials to involve NGOs and other organisations in the effort.

Renewed focus on testing, tracking

Though the case count has come down from the peak of over 4,00,000 daily new cases witnessed in the second week of May but three-day daily moving average for new cases on Friday was still above 50,000 new cases as 1,183 people died due to Covid infection yesterday. The deadly SarS-CoV-2 virus and its mutants have killed more than 3,94,000 people in the country so far, the second-highest in the world after the USA where the virus has killed more than 6,19,000 people as the global death toll is nearing 4 million people.

In order to deal with the situation, the Prime Minister asked the officials to ensure that the pace of testing does not go down as testing remains an important weapon to track and contain rising infections in any region. Prime Minister also asked the officials to help all those countries who have expressed interest in adopting the technology behind India’s national vaccination portal CoWin to conduct their own vaccination drives.

Read: Vaccinate prisoners and staff on priority basis: MHA