New Delhi: A day after Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said that all the members of Parliament will have to undergo COVID-19 tests, the Union Health Ministry on Saturday started developing standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the lawmakers. The ministry is also developing similar SOPs for Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs).
"The Health Ministry has been tasked to develop SOPs for the MPs and Legislative Assembly sessions comprising Covid protocols and preventive measures," said Health Minister Harsh Vardhan today during a Group of Ministers (GoM) meeting.
The GoM, however, expressed concern about the forthcoming festival seasons and suggested to adopt safe and Covid-appropriate behaviour.
The GoM was briefed on the current status of Covid-19 in India. The global comparison clearly depicted that India has one of the lowest cases per million (2424) and deaths per million (44) compared to the global average of 3161 and 107.2 respectively.
"Within the country, eight states, including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, and Telangana contribute to around 73 per cent of the active caseload as on Saturday. Seven states including Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal account for 81 per cent of total deaths," the GoM was told.
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Referring to the prospective COVID-19 vaccines, it was told that the Oxford vaccine candidate developed by Serum Institute of India (SII) is already undergoing phase 3 trial in Maharashtra and some other states.
"Bharat Biotech vaccine candidate based on inactivated virus procured by ICMR is in phase 2 trial along with Zydus Cadila's candidate which is based on viral DNA," said Dr VK Paul during the GoM meeting.
Dr VK Pal is also the chairperson of the empowered group 1 on medical emergency management plan for COVID-19. He said that 29 candidates across the globe including two Indian candidates are in clinical trials out of which six are in phase 3.
Dr Paul said that the national expert group on vaccine administration for COVID-19 is tasked with the facilitation of vaccine development including issues of trial and stockpiling, shorting out issues of financing risk management.
"The expert group has also been tasked for selection of potential beneficiaries and their order of reference, envisioning logistics, scale up, digital system, defining principles for selecting beneficiary categories and defining scientific basis for selecting vaccine," said Dr Paul. He said that the group already had three round of meetings.
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The GoM meeting highlighted the use of 'social vaccines' like social distancing, use of masks, and behavioural changes.
"Their needs to be continued attention on promotion of wearing of mask, physical distancing and respiratory etiquette," said Dr Sujit Singh, Director, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). He said that some states in the country have been witnessing doubling of cases in large number and in small duration.
Harsh Vardhan while chairing the GoM meeting, however, said that India has made tremendous strides in containing the disease. "As many as 26.4 lakh people have recovered. The country's case fatality rate is at its lowest 1.81 percent and recovery has increased to 76.47 percent," said Dr Vardhan.
He said that at present, only 0.29 per cent cases are on ventilators, 1.93 per cent cases on ICU and 2.88 per cent on oxygen support. He said that India has conducted more than four crore Covid tests with at least nine lakh samples being tested in last 24 hours.
Health Secretary Rajesh Bhusan said that the central government is in direct communication with states that have been reporting a surge in cases and those with higher mortality rate.
Minister for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Minister of State for Shipping and Chemical and Fertiliser Mansukh Lal Mandaviya, Niti Aayog member Dr VK Paul among others were present in the meeting.
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