Second Covid-19 vaccine dry run on Friday; health ministers' meet tomorrow | Top developments
The second coronavirus vaccine dry run will be conducted in India on January 8. Meanwhile, Union and state health ministers will hold a virtual meet tomorrow. Here are the top developments.
Days after conducting the first dry run of coronavirus vaccinations in India on January 2, India is all set to conduct the second such run on January 8. This comes as, on Tuesday, the Government of India announced that the immunization drive will begin by January 13 or January 14.
#IndiaFightsCorona #Unite2FightCorona
Another Mock Drill on #COVID19 #Vaccine administration to be conducted in all States/UTs on 8th January 2021.https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FEeFT8aAXah pic.twitter.com/8x0ByqUdFF — Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) January 6, 2021
On Wednesday, India reported 18,088 new Covid-19 cases while the death toll crossed the 1.50 lakh mark. India also recorded 21,314 recoveries, and 264 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per Union Health Ministry. India’s total coronavirus case tally has now reached 1,03,74,932.
On the other hand, the number of UK strain of coronavirus infections in India reached 73 today.
India has two coronavirus vaccines ready for rollout: One is Covaxin, that has been developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology. Another is Covishield, a vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Its India partner is Pune-based Serum Institute.
Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and state health ministers are also scheduled to hold a virtual meet tomorrow to discuss vaccine distribution across the country.
Here are the top developments.
Top Covid vaccine developments
A meeting of Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan with the health ministers of states and Union territories is scheduled to take place on January 7 to guide them on conducting the dry run, the ministry said. The meeting is scheduled to take place at 12.30 pm on Thursday.
Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar has said that India is looking at post-Covid cooperation with Sri Lanka.
Jaishankar, who is on a 2-day Sri Lanka visit, said the neighbours have expressed interest accessing vaccines from India. Jaishankar has tweeted, "We are now looking at post-Covid cooperation and I carry back with me Sri Lanka's interest in accessing vaccines from India. I shared with the foreign minister that India sees international cooperation in this area as its duty."
Pleased to call on President @GotabayaRhttps://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FGotabayaR%3Fref_src%3Dtwsrc%255Etfw">@GotabayaR;. Conveyed warm greetings from PM @narendramodihttps://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fnarendramodi%3Fref_src%3Dtwsrc%255Etfw">@narendramodi;. Discussed cooperation for post-Covid health and economic recovery. India will be a reliable partner in Sri Lanka's development. pic.twitter.com/eaehNafiuN&mdash" rel="dofollow">https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FeaehNafiuN">pic.twitter.com/eaehNafiuN— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) January" rel="dofollow">https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FDrSJaishankar%2Fstatus%2F1346757432580710401%3Fref_src%3Dtw... 6, 2021
Prime Minister Narendra Modi briefed German Chancellor Angela Merkel on developments in India with regard to coronavirus vaccine. In a statement, the Prime Minister's Office said that the PM assured Chancellor Merkel of India’s commitment to deploy its capacities for the benefit of the world.
Delhi LG Anil Baijal on Wednesday directed all concerned agencies of the Delhi government to work in close coordination with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for effective roll-out of the coronavirus vaccine.
As per a report in PTI, the Delhi government has a target to vaccinate 51 lakh priority category persons including health workers, frontline personnel, those above 50 years of age and people with comorbidities.
Dry run of vaccination Conducted at Municipal Hospitals
Dry run of coronavirus vaccination was conducted at municipal hospitals in Delhi on Wednesday. The dry run was conducted at Hindu Rao Hospital and Kasturba Hospital of North Delhi Municipal Corporation and five Maternity and Child Welfare Centre and Polyclinics run by South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) located in Harinagar, Bijwasan, Munirka, Sriniwaspuri and Fatehpur Beri.
BJP MLA from Digha in Patna, Sanjeev Chaurasia became the first public representative in the state to get vaccinated during the third phase of trial of Covaxin at Patna AIIMS on Tuesday.
The third phase of Covaxin trial is going on in AIIMS, Patna. Till Monday, more than 1200 volunteers have received the first dose of the vaccine during the third phase of trial. The third and final phase of the trial will end in another 50-60 days.
Former Maharashtra minister Arjun Khotkar on Wednesday demanded that journalists be given free coronavirus vaccine as they 'work in the frontline of the pandemic'.
As per a report in PTI, he said, "The government has declared that free coronavirus vaccine shall be provided to health care and frontline workers. I would make a demand to the state chief minister and health minister to also include journalists in the first phase of that vaccination programme".
As many as 73 people in India have been identified as carrying the UK variant of coronavirus strain in India so far.
As per government data, 28 infections have been reported from Delhi, 30 in Pune, 11 from Bengaluru, 3 in Hyderabad and 1 from Kolkata.
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday said that Kerala is a cause of concern as far as daily cases of coronavirus are concerned.
The Ministry said that Kerala has been reporting over 5000 cases and 20 deaths per day on average.
"It is because of all these reasons that a High Level Central team is being rushed to Kerala to assist the State in coronavirus management," the Ministry informed.
#IndiaFightsCorona
It also reports more than 20 deaths/day on an average.https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2F4nlTjCIIn9https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2F4nlTjCIIn9">https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2F4nlTjCIIn9; pic.twitter.com/cmaLuS39jP&mdash" rel="dofollow">https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FcmaLuS39jP">pic.twitter.com/cmaLuS39jP— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) January" rel="dofollow">https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FMoHFW_INDIA%2Fstatus%2F1346818022187565059%3Fref_src%3Dtwsr... 6, 2021The Ministry also informed that Kerala's doubling rate of infections is less than that of India.
"The Doubling Rate of Kerala is 106 days as compared to the national Doubling Rate of 385 days," it said.
The Doubling Rate of #Keralahttps://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fhashtag%2FKerala%3Fsrc%3Dhashref_src%3Dtwsrc%255Etfw">#K...; is 106 days as compared to national Doubling Rate of 385 days.— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) January" rel="dofollow">https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FMoHFW_INDIA%2Fstatus%2F1346818030081216512%3Fref_src%3Dtwsr... 6, 2021
In order to facilitate the government with entire vaccination process, a software named 'Co-WIN' has been developed by the health ministry for real time information on vaccine stocks, their storage temperature and individualized tracking of beneficiaries for the coronavirus vaccine.
This software will assist the programme managers across all levels in conduct of the vaccination sessions. A dedicated 24x7 call centre has also been established for technical queries of Co-WIN users. The cold chain infrastructure (like walk-in-freezers, walk-in-coolers, ice-lined refrigerators, deep freezers) along with sufficient supplies of syringes and other logistics have been ensured to begin Covid-19 vaccination drive, PTI reported.
The Second coronavirus vaccine dry run will be conducted on January 8, Friday.
Around 1.7 lakh vaccinators and 3 lakh vaccination team members have been trained on the process to be followed at the vaccination sites which include beneficiary verification, vaccination, cold chain and logistics management, bio-medical waste management, AEFI management and reporting on Co-WIN software.
"The vaccine dry run will be conducted on January 8 in all districts across India, except for UP and Haryana. COVID-19 vaccine dry run has already been conducted in all districts in UP on January 5 and Haryana is conducting it in all its districts tomorrow (Thursday)," an official source told news agency PTI.
(With inputs from PTI)