Covid review meeting: As the cases of coronavirus continue to rise across the country, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on Wednesday held a review meeting on Wednesday. According to reports, the meeting was chaired by Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, PK Mishra to oversee the level of preparedness and public health response to it.
According to sources, he instructed officials to ensure the operational readiness of hospital infrastructure till the sub-district level.
He also highlighted the need to examine the Covid-19 situation regularly and update advisories to guide the states. Mishra also exhorted upon the continuation of the ongoing time-tested strategy of Test-Track-Treat-Vaccination and adherence to Covid appropriate behaviour among the people.
Health Ministry provides overview of the global Covid situation
A presentation was made by Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan during the meeting, where he provided an overview of the global Covid-19 situation. He highlighted that India has been witnessing a rapid increase in the number of Covid-19 cases with the majority of cases being reported in eight states, namely Kerala, Delhi, Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Rajasthan.
The Health Secretary further said that states have already been advised that they may take steps for procurement of the requisite Covid vaccine doses directly from the manufacturers at their end without any prior approvals from the Union Health Ministry.
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India reports 10,542 fresh cases
Meanwhile, India has logged 10,542 new coronavirus infections, while the active cases have increased to 63,562, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday (April 19). The death toll has increased to 5,31,190 with 38 deaths, which includes 11 reconciled by Kerala.
The Covid case tally was recorded at 4.47 crore (4,48,45,401) The daily positivity rate was recorded at 4.39 per cent and the weekly positivity rate was pegged at 5.1 per cent.
Active case tally:
The active cases now comprise 0.14 per cent of the total infections and the national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.67 per cent, the ministry said. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,42,50,649, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent.
(With IANS inputs)
