Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan displays a Covishield vaccine vial.
Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Sunday said he personally feels that there is no need for a national lockdown again and people just need to follow the covid appropriate behaviour strictly to fight the second wave of coronavirus.
Speaking exclusively to India TV during Swasthya Sammelan, the Union Health Minister said that "we just need to follow and implement Covid appropriate behaviour which we learned during the earlier lockdown last year for some time to control the spread of cases.
"At this point, I don't personally feel that there is a need for a lockdown again. The need for a complete shutdown was last year as there was no preparation. But now we have all systems in place, we all learned how to fight the pandemic. At present, we just need to implement how we learned to fight the pandemic by following basic Covid guideline," Dr Harsh Vardhan said.
"Everything can be controlled in a month or 2 if people take it seriously," he added.
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The Union Health Minister further said, "I want to thank all the healthcare workers for the kind of unprecedented work they have been doing. Over 65 thousand vaccine centres are working across the country."
"'Tika Utsav' will have an important role to play in India's fight against Covid pandemic," he mentioned.
"Coronavirus cases have shot up tremendously in the last couple of months due to people's negligence and casual approach. People were not taking Covid appropriate measures such as wearing face mask, maintaining social distance and others," the Union Health Minister said.
"Fatality rate in India is one of the lowest in the world," Dr Harsh Vardhan added.
The Union Health Minister advised people that vaccine helps in building immunity against Coronavirus. People should understand that vaccine plus Covid appropriate behaviour is important.
"The war against Covid was fought with great unity by the people of the country, now the vaccination program should also be taken forward by everyone on the same line," he said.
On vaccine availability, Dr Harsh Vardhan said, "there is no shortage of vaccine. We have all data regarding doses provided to states. The government is working to help manufacturing companies to step up production capacity."
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