New Delhi: Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday reiterated that India is in a much better place than rest of the world as far as COVID-19 is concerned but "no time for complacency.”
“Let us also not forget the social vaccine against COVID-19 through strict adherence of norms of physical distancing, hand hygiene and mask, face covers,” said Dr Vardhan while chairing the 16th meeting of the High-level Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19.
Dr Vardhan said that as India enters into the unlock 1.0 phase where restrictions have been eased and curbs have been lifted, “We need to be more disciplined in our COVID appropriate behaviour to ensure that all follow norms of physical distancing, make use of masks and face covers in all public places, adhere to norms of hand hygiene and follow protocols of respiratory etiquette.”
As all government offices are opening now, he appealed to the Heads of Departments, “Let us also not forget the social vaccine norms of physical distancing…”
He emphasized on the need to download the Aarogya Setu app which will help in the self-risk assessment and protection against COVID-19. As on date, more than 12.55 crore people in the country have downloaded the app.
The GoM was briefed about the latest status, response and management of COVID-19 in the country. The meeting was briefed on the progress made in the spheres of the tasks assigned to the 11 Empowered Groups.
The GoM was briefed about how the SoPs issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for public and semi-public environments would allow the resumption of economic activity without compromising the preventive measures to contain COVID-19.
The GoM was also apprised about the growing medical infrastructure in the country. It was informed that as on date, India has 958 dedicated COVID Hospitals with 1,67,883 isolation beds, 21,614 ICU beds and 73,469 oxygen supported beds.
“There are 2,313 dedicated COVID Health Centres with 1,33,037 Isolation beds; 10,748 ICU beds and 46,635 oxygen supported beds have also been operationalised. Moreover, 7,525 COVID Care Centres with 7,10,642 beds are now available to combat COVID-19 in the country. The ventilators available for COVID beds are 21,494,” the GoM was informed.
It may be mentioned here that the Centre has also provided 128.48 lakh N95 masks and 104.74 lakh Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) to the States, UTs and central institutions. It was told in the meeting that the Centre has further placed an order of 60,848 ventilators.
Dr Raman Gangakhedkar from ICMR presented details on the status of testing labs, augmented capacities for testing across the country, and also enlightened the GoM on various issues related to HCQ, Remdesivir, and sero-surveillance studies.
As of Tuesday, a total of 1,29,214 people have been cured. 4,785 patients were cured in the last 24 hours taking the total recovery rate to 48.47 per cent.
The total number of active cases is now 1,29,917. More than 49 lakh cumulative tests have been conducted in the country through 784 labs. As many as 1,41,682 samples have been tested in the last 24 hours.
The meeting was also attended by Dr S Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs, Hardeep S Puri, Minister of Civil aviation, Nityananda Rai, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Mansukh Lal Mandaviya, Minister of State for Shipping, Chemical and Fertilizers and Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare along with Bipin Rawat, Chief of Defence Staff.
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