Health Ministry takes stock of cold chain for vaccine supply

The Union Health Ministry has said its expert committee on vaccine administration is looking at the status of vaccine development world-wide, its regulatory approvals, logistic requirements and dose requirement. “Priority population groups, identified by the government, no matter where they are stationed [in urban or rural areas] would be given COVID-vaccine. India, however, will need many more cold storage facilities, equipment etc. We are now taking stock of the storage facilities and are well equipped to augment our capacity,’’ said Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, at a press conference on Tuesday.

He said 62% of COVID-19 deaths reported in the last 24 hours are from Maharashtra, Delhi, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Punjab. Indian Council of Medical Research Director General Balram Bhargava said the spike in the number of cases in Delhi can be attributed to rise in pollution, cold weather, crowds due to festival season and laxity in COVID-appropriate behaviour.

The Health Ministry on Tuesday said India has registered less than 40,000 daily new cases after six days.

“The number of daily new COVID-cases in the last 24 hours is 38,073. For the third day in a row, daily new cases have been sustained below the 50,000-mark. The active caseload has shrunk to 5,05,265. The recovery rate has also, as a consequence, increased to 92.64%.Total recoveries as of today are 79,59,406. The gap between recovered cases and active cases has widened to74,54,141.’’

The Ministry said 78% of the new recovered cases are concentrated in 10 States/UTs.

“Delhi continues to report the highest daily new cases, 5,983, which is less than its previous day tally of 7,745. Delhi is followed by West Bengal with 3,907 new cases. Kerala’s daily case has declined to 3,593 while Maharashtra’s new cases have declined to 3,277 cases although they occupy the third and fourth spot in reporting daily new cases,’’ it said.

India has also reported 448 case fatalities in the past 24 hours with the Ministry saying they have continued to decrease with less than 500 fatalities reported for the second day.

“Ten States/UTs account for nearly 78%. Although Maharashtra saw the most casualties (85), its contribution to daily deaths has decreased to 18.97%. Delhi and West Bengal follow with 71 and 56 daily deaths, respectively.’’

The Ministry said Delhi has reported the maximum number of single-day recoveries with 7,014 newly recovered cases. “5,983 people recovered in Kerala followed by 4,396 in West Bengal.’’ The Hindu