Delivering a suo-motu statement in Parliament on the present covid situation and steps taken by the government to check the pandemic, Mandaviya said, “In the last few days, we have seen an increasing trajectory of covid-19 cases across the world. India on the other hand has shown a continued decreasing trajectory of cases since last one year. Presently 153 new cases on an average are being reported daily across the country, but globally approximately 5.87 lakh new cases are still being reported on an average on daily basis."
A large number of cases are being reported in countries including Japan, United States, South Korea, France, Greece, Italy. “There are also media reports of a high number of cases and deaths being reported from China since the last few days," Mandaviya said.
Since the onset of pandemic in early 2020, India has adopted a proactive, pre-emptive, whole of government and whole of society approach towards management of covid, and this has shown positive results.
India has administered more than 220.02 crore doses of covid vaccines, covering 90 % of the eligible population with two doses including administration of 22.35 crores precaution doses.
“In view of upcoming festivals and new year celebrations, states also need to focus on ensuring effective awareness on adherence to covid appropriate behaviour. States should ensure that the coverage of precaution doses for covid-19 vaccination should increase and required awareness for the same is undertaken within the community,"
The 2% random sampling of all international passengers is being considered at all international airports to minimize the risk of ingress of any new variant into the country, he said.
“The union ministry of health is monitoring the global situation on a regular basis. Besides, states have been advised to focus on high surveillance, containment measures, increasing whole genome sequencing of all positive cases for timely detection of newer variants, if any, circulating in the country and facilitate undertaking required public health measures," Mandaviya stated in the house.
While China and other parts of the world are reeling with the Omicron BF.7 hit wave killing and infecting thousands of people every day, India has also reported 3 cases of BF.7 with active covid cases in India cominh down to have come down to 3402 patients on Thursday, health ministry data said. With more than 44.6 million covid cases being reported so far, India has recorded 530,681 covid deaths in nearly last three years.
Meanwhile , Prime Minister Narendra Modi is holding a meeting today to review covid situation in India.
