Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan chaired the 27th meeting of the high-level Group of Ministers (GoM) on Covid-19 by a video-conference here on May 24, 2021. He was joined by Hardeep S. Puri, Minister of Civil Aviation, and Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways (I/C), & Chemical and Fertilizers. Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State, Health & Family Welfare, was present virtually. Dr Vinod K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, joined digitally.
Dr Vardhan gave a snapshot of India’s efforts to contain Covid-19 at the outset: “Today is the 11th day in succession where our number of recoveries is more than the number of new cases. This is also the 8th day in succession where we are having less than 3 lakh daily new cases. This is a positive sign. Right now, our active cases in the country are 27 lakh. A couple of weeks back, we had over 37 lakh active cases.” Expressing his grief that each death is tragic, he cautioned on the high number of fatalities being reported.
Speaking on vaccine and clinical intervention, Dr Vardhan observed, “We have already given 19.6 crore doses to our countrymen. Over 60 lakh doses are still with the states and further 21 lakh doses are in the pipeline.” He noted that the Union Government has already sent over 70 lakh Remdesivir vials and 45,735 ventilators to states/UTs. On Genome Sequencing, the Union Health Minister Informed that 25,739 samples have been sequenced and variant B.1.617 has been found in 5,261 samples, making it the most common mutation detected till now. He also informed that states have been requested to send samples regularly for better analysis.
Dr Vardhan appreciated the coordination between Centre and the States in flagging emerging cases of Mucormycosis, popularly called ‘Black Fungus’. A total of 5, 424 cases have been reported from 18 states with the most number of cases being reported from Gujarat and Maharashtra. Out of these, 4,556 cases have a history of Covid-19 infection while the rest are non-Covid cases. 55% of the affected had diabetes. “9 lakh vials of Amphotericin-B are being imported by the Central government for treatment of Black Fungus. Of this, 50,000 vials have been received and around 3 lakh vials will be available in next 7 days,” he added, according to a PIB release.
The Union Health Minister also highlighted implementation of the SoPs of Union Govt. on COVID management in peri-urban/urban/tribal areas. These are being actively pursued and monitored regularly by Health Ministry at the State review meetings.
Ashwini Kumar Choubey, MoS, MoHFW, stressed on streamlining availability of 2-DG drug by DRDO, increasing the affordability and availability of home testing kits. He said that a protocol should be made to streamline supply of mobile/home testing kits in the Country.