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New Delhi : Union Health & Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan chaired the 20th meeting of the high-level Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19, here on August 29, 2020. He was joined by Dr S Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs, Hardeep S. Puri, Minister of Civil Aviation, Mansukh Lal Mandaviya, Minister of State, Shipping (Independent Charge), Chemicals and Fertilisers, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State, Health & Family Welfare, and Nityanand Rai, Minister of State, Home Affairs. Dr. Vinod Paul, Member (Health) NitiAayog, joined virtually.
At the outset, Dr Vardhan expressed satisfaction at the various coordinated efforts of the Centre Government and those of the States/UTs. He stated, “In the month since the last meeting of GoM on July 31,2020, we have made tremendous strides in containing the disease. As many as 26.4 lakh patients have already recovered. The country’s Case Fatality Rate is at its lowest 1.81% and consecutively Recovery Rate has increased to 76.47%.”
He further informed the GOM that with creation of sufficient health facilities, the health infrastructure in the country has been amply strengthened. Also, only 0.29% of cases are on ventilators, 1.93% in ICU and only 2.88% of cases are on oxygen. A total of 1,576 labs at present have led to an upsurge in testing and the goal of 10 lakh tests per day has been fulfilled. More than 9 lakh samples were tested in the last 24 hours and this has led to the cumulative total number of tests crossing the 4 crore mark, he added. Dr Harsh Vardhan also informed the GOM that more than 338 lakh of N-95 masks, nearly 135 lakh of PPEs, and about 27,000 ventilators have been provided by the centre to the States/UTs.
The Union Health Minister instructed the Health Ministry to develop SOPs for the Members of Parliament and the Legislative Assembly sessions comprising COVID protocols and preventive measures. The GOM also expressed concern about the forthcoming festival seasons and advised everyone to adopt safe and COVID appropriate behaviour.
The GoM was briefed on the current status of COVID-19 in India. The global comparison clearly depicted that India has one of the lowest cases per million (2,424) and deaths per million (44) compared to the global average of 3,161 and 107.2 respectively. It was noted that despite resource constraint and densely populated, timely lockdown and rapid augmentation of infrastructure by India have enabled it to keep the case/ million and deaths/million considerably lower compared to other countries.
Within the country, eight States (Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha and Telangana) contribute to around 73% of the active caseload, as of today. Moreover, seven States (Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal) account for 81% of total deaths, according to a PIB release.
Dr. Vinod K Paul, Chairperson of the Empowered Group-1 on Medical Emergency management plan, apprised the GoM of the process of COVID vaccine development in India and around the world. He stated that 29 candidates, including 2 Indian ones, are in Clinical Trials of which 6 are in Phase III.
In India, Bharat Biotech’s vaccine candidate based on inactivated virus procured by ICMR is in Phase II trial along with ZydusCadila’s candidate which is based on viral DNA. The Oxford vaccine candidate developed by Serum Institute of India is already in Phase III trial in Maharashtra and some other States.