Ensure that restrictions do not slow the pace of vaccination: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the pace of vaccination should not slow down, while stressing that the drive should be facilitated despite lockdowns and restrictions.

Modi was holding a review meeting of the public health response to Covid-19. Ministers including Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman, Harsh Vardhan, Rajnath Singh, Piyush Goyal and Mansukh Mandaviya, along with top officials, were present at the meeting.

Around 31 per cent of the eligible population over the age of 45 has been given at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the government data.

Taking note of the vaccination progress and the road map for scaling up production in the next few months, Modi said, “Health care workers involved in vaccination must not be diverted to other duties.”

He also called for the need to sensitise states to keep up the momentum of vaccination.

The government has said that 177 million vaccines have been supplied to states. More than 900,000 beneficiaries in the age group of 18 to 44 have received their first dose of the vaccine across 12 states.

The government has sent an advisory to the states to identify districts of concern where case positivity is 10 per cent or more and bed occupancy is higher than 60 per cent on either oxygen-supported or ICU beds.

“States should be given help and guidance about leading indicators to ramp up health care infrastructure,” the Prime Minister said.

Officials gave Modi a det­ailed picture of the Covid-19 outb­r­eak in various states and dist­r­icts and apprised him of the di­stricts with high disease burden.

India recorded its highest single-day caseload of 412,262 new infections on Thursday and 3,980 deaths.

Ten states — Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Haryana, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan — reported 72 per cent of the new cases.

Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 57,640. It is followed by Karna­taka with 50,112, while Kerala reported 41,953 new cases.

Oxygen concentrators not held at Customs

India has received 3,000 oxygen concentrators as international relief aid. One-third of these have come from China and the rest from Ireland, Thailand, the UK, Russia, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, Mauritius and Romania.

The health ministry said in a statement on Thursday that there was no oxygen concentrator still awaiting clearance from the Customs authority. “The Indian Customs is swif­t­ly clearing all consignments and no such figures of pendency exist across any port of import.”

The issue of the Customs authorities holding on to a consignment of 3,000 oxygen concentrators recently came up in the Delhi High Court. “It was clarified that no such consignment is pending with Custom authorities,” the ministry said.

India has been receiving int­ernational donations and aid of Covid-19 relief medical supplies and equipment since April 27.

Modi also spoke to the chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand and Telan­gana about the Covid-19 situation in their states, and with the lieutenant governors of Jammu & Kashmir and Puducherry.

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