Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan reviews Covid-19 situation with Health Minister of 11 states

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan reviewed the Covid-19 situation and actions being taken to address rising cases in the country with the Health Minister's of 11 states through Video Conference yesterday. 

These states include Maharashtra, Haryana, Delhi, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Gujarat and Jharkhand, which are witnessing the highest spike in the Covid cases.

Dr Harsh Vardhan assured States that the Centre will continually replenish the vaccine stock and urged the states to vaccinate the prioritized groups in mission made. He said, no State Government can complain that because of vaccine shortage, they have not been able to vaccinate.

During the meeting, Dr Harsh Vardhan attributed to the local body election, big agitations and events and marriage ceremonies for the rise in the Covid cases saying Covid containment measures were ignored on this occasion.

The Union Health Minister highlighted that these 11 States together contributed 54 per cent of the total cases and 65 per



cent of the total deaths in the country, with a disproportionately high number of deaths in Maharashtra and Punjab. He assured that the Centre has been and shall continue to support the States and UTs through all possible resources to fight the global pandemic.

He stated that while the cases were on the rise since the past few weeks, the national cumulative fatality rate (CFR) has become 1.30 per cent now. He said, India’s vaccination coverage has crossed 8.31 crore doses with the single largest vaccination in the last 24 hours of more than 43 lakh doses administered.

In order to curb the resurgence of the pandemic,  Dr Harsh Vardhan advised the States to strengthen their public and private healthcare resources.

The limiting of social and public gatherings, implementation of “Test, Track, Treat” strategy with 70 per cent  RT-PCR ratio, quarantine of positive cases, contact tracing of at least 25 to 30 contacts per positive person were also stressed upon.