Assembly elections 2022: EC reviews Covid situation in poll-bound states with health officials

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The Election Commission on Thursday reviewed the current Covid situation in the five poll-bound states with Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, AIIMS Director, Dr Randeep Guleria, and ICMR chief Dr Balram Bhargava. Five states scheduled for Assembly polls this year are Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab, and Manipur.

According to a source, the health experts have briefed the top Election Commission officials to focus majorly on virtual rallies, seeing the unprecedented rise in the Covid cases across the country. The need to ramp up the vaccination process was also emphasised. The source said that the need to ensure complete vaccination of eligible population was stressed to the Health Secretary in the meeting.

This is the second time that when Bhushan briefed the EC top officials on the emerging Covid situation in the country and poll-bound states in particular. Earlier, the meeting was held on December 27 with health experts in which the Election Commission had asked to speed up the vaccination drive in the poll-bound states.

Earlier, major political parties in Uttar Pradesh urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) not to delay the 2022 assembly polls in the state, following concerns of over the new Omicron Covid-19 variant. Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra, Election Commissioners Rajiv Kumar and Anup Chandra Pandey and other senior officers of the ECI held meetings with representatives of national and recognised political parties in Lucknow recently. 

India on Thursday registered single-day rise of 90,928 cases, a significant rise from 58,097 Covid cases the previous day. A total of 325 deaths have also been reported in the same time, taking the total death toll to 4,82,876. The active caseload has also jumped at 2,85,401 which constitute 0.81 per cent of the country's total positive cases. India's Omicron infection tally has climbed at 2,630 across the nation. However, out of total Omicron positive, 995 have been discharged from hospitals. So far total 26 states have reported Omicron infection.

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