Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan reviews Covid-19 situation

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Monday asked Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and all North-eastern states to take necessary steps to control the Covid-19 situation. In a review meeting that took place over video conferencing, Rajesh Buhsan took an overview from the State government representatives and their ongoing strategy to fight Covid-19.

New Delhi: Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Monday asked Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and all North-eastern states to take necessary steps to control the Covid-19 situation. In a review meeting that took place over video conferencing, Rajesh Buhsan took an overview from the State government representatives and their ongoing strategy to fight Covid-19.

As per the Health Ministry report, Kerala has reported 13,383 new Covid-19 cases whereas Tamil Nadu registered 1,604 fresh cases. Significantly, India registered the lowest single-day rise of 25,072 cases in the last 24 hours whereas active cases declined to 3,33,924 cases. Meanwhile, an expert panel set up by the Home Ministry in a report submitted to the PMO has emphasised the need to vaccinate children with co-morbidities.

The Home Ministry panel consists of Dr Anurag Agarwal, Dr Naveen Thacker, Dr Gagandeep Kang, Dr Chandrakant Lahiya and Dr Soumya Swaminathan has learned that the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic might take place in October. The report titled "Third Wave Preparedness: Children Vulnerability and Recovery" is learnt to have highlighted children in terms of the approaching third wave and preparedness to fight the pandemic. The report also highlighted the sequencing of the different variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It has also highlighted the second wave of the pandemic which was majorly dominated by Delta variants.

Talking about the report, senior health expert Dr Suneela Garg told ETV Bharat that the third wave could mostly impact the children. "However, there could be less severity of the infection following the fact that children have strong immunity," said Dr Garg. She said that a good number of children might also have seropositivity following natural infection. "Moreover, anticipating the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government has also prepared itself to control the situation," said Dr Garg.