31 per cent citizens over 45 have received one Covid vaccine dose: PM told at review meet

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 6

One-third of the population over the age of 45 has received at least the first dose of the Covid vaccine, top health ministry officials informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a meeting on Thursday held to review the vaccine progress, medicine and infrastructure preparedness in the country.

The PM reiterated the need for high burden states to impose local level lockdowns as earlier advised by the health and home ministries.

As many as 12 states - Haryana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, UP, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Bihar — have more than one lakh active cases each with potential for stress on hospitals.

Also, 24 states have higher than 15 per cent positivity rate, Goa, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi among them. 

Modi undertook a comprehensive review of the Covid-19 related situation in the country as daily cases reached a record peak of 4.12 lakh today.

He was given a detailed picture of the Covid outbreak in various states and districts and informed about the 12 states which have more than 1 lakh active cases and high burden districts.

Thirty districts including Gurugram and Faridabad in Haryana have been witnessing a steep Covid surge for 15 days.

The PM directed that states should be given help and guidance about leading indicators to ramp up healthcare infrastructure.

“The need to ensure quick and holistic containment measures were also discussed. PM noted that an advisory was sent to the states to identify districts of concern where Case positivity is 10 pc or more and Bed occupancy is more than 60 pc on either oxygen supported or ICU beds. PM also reviewed the availability of medicines. He was briefed about the rapid augmenting of production of medicines including Remdesivir,” a government statement said.

The meeting also undertook a review of the progress on vaccination and the roadmap for scaling up production on vaccines in the next few months.

Officials told the PM that states had been sent 17.7 crore vaccine doses free.

“PM reviewed state-wise trends on vaccine wastage. PM was briefed that around 31 pc of eligible population over the age of 45 has been given at least one dose. PM spoke about the need to sensitise states that the speed of vaccination doesn’t come down. Citizens should be facilitated for vaccination despite lockdowns and healthcare workers involved in vaccination must not be diverted for other duties,” an official statement said.

Also present at the meeting were Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Commerce minister Piyush Goyal, and Chemicals minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

Thirty districts showing rising trends of cases for over 15 days are Bengaluru, Chennai, Kozhikode, Ernakulum, Gurugram, Thrissur, Malappuram, Patna, Kottayam, Mysuru, Chittoor, Dehradun, Satara, Alappuzha, Solapur, Srikakulam, East Godavari, Palakkad, Indore, Bhopal, Kanpur, Kollam, Tumkura, Faridabad, Vishakhapatnam, Thiruvananthapuram, Anantpur, Kurnool.