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Newdelhi:9/10/21:Health Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya today reviewed the progress of COVID-19 Vaccination with 19 States. He interacted with Principal Secretaries and Mission Directors, National Health Mission of all these States. He exhorted each State to increase their target so that the administration of the last six crore doses for reaching the mark of 100 Crore is achieved in the next few days.
Dr. Mandaviya noted that festivals are usually synonymous with auspiciousness, joy and large gatherings, if not done in accordance with COVID protocols can derail the containment of COVID-19. He said the twin-pronged solution is to follow COVID protocols very strictly and speeding up vaccination. He cited results of experiments that pegged the number of 1st dose recipients not developing severe COVID-19 to be 96 percent.
Observing that more than eight crore balance doses are physically available with States, Dr. Mandaviya enquired regarding the specific hurdles, if any, faced by the States in increasing their pace of vaccination. Many States are nearing saturation of coverage in urban areas and are also catering to the floating population in the city.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has urged all the State health administrators to be strict with regard to the observance of COVID Appropriate Behaviour during festivities to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak. He underlined the need to adhere to the detailed SOP for States and UTs which were issued by the Health Ministry. It said, no mass gatherings in areas identified as Containment Zones and in districts reporting more than five percent case positivity.
The Ministry has asked states to closely monitor the case trajectories across all districts daily to identify any early warning signals. Provision for online darshans and virtual celebrations to be encouraged. All rituals like effigies burning, Durga Puja pandal, dandia, garbage, and Chhatt Puja should be symbolic.
