Ranchi: Amid rising cases of coronavirus, Jharkhand Health Minister Banna Gupta urged the Centre to provide at least 50,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to continue with the immunisation drive in the state. Health Minister Gupta raised the issue at a review meeting chaired by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday (April 7).
Jharkhand have run out of COVID vaccine doses. We had sent a request to provide at least 50,000 doses to the state two weeks back but its arrival is still awaited, he said.
With 11 new COVID-19 cases reported on Thursday, the total number of active patients in Jharkhand rose to 60, according to a health bulletin.
Two persons were cured of the disease in the past 24 hours, it said.
Minister Banna Gupta said that the majority of the patients were having mild symptoms, and were in treatment at their homes.
In the meeting with state health ministers and principal and additional chief secretaries, Dr. Mandaviya stressed on identifying emergency hotspots by monitoring trends of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) cases, ramping up testing and vaccination besides ensuring the readiness of hospital infrastructure.
Health Minister Gupta said that the Union minister asked the state to conduct mock drills of infrastructure in hospitals and medical colleges on April 10 and 11 and review the health preparedness with district administrations on April 9.
The state minister also sought Dr. Mandaviya’s intervention for approval of four RT-PCR laboratories at Khunti, Lohardaga, Koderma and Pakur from Indian Council of Medical Research.
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
