India has successfully contained COVID-19 pandemic: Harsh Vardhan

A patient`s temperature being checked. File Pic

With a massive decrease in the coronavirus cases, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday said India has successfully contained the pandemic.

"With the 'Whole of Government' and 'Whole-of-society' approach envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has successfully contained the pandemic," Dr Vardhan said at the 23rd meeting of Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19.

For the past 21 days, the country has been recording less than 20,000 daily new infections. Also, the death toll remained below 300-mark for the past 31 days.

This number has been on a steady decline for more than four months now. The peak was reached on September 17 when 97,894 infections were detected in a single-day.

Detailing the achievements, he said, "146 districts have no new cases since the last 7 days, 18 districts since the last 14 days, 6 districts since 21 days and 21 districts since the last 28 days."

This has been achieved with pro-active testing of which more than 19.5 crore have been conducted so far. The current testing capacity rests at 12 lakh per day, he emphasised.

He added that out of the total active cases, a meagre 0.46 per cent are on ventilators, 2.20 per cent are in ICU and just 3.02 per cent are on oxygen support.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan stated that 165 cases of the mutant variant of cronovirus that originated in the UK have been reported so far. The patients have been kept under supervised quarantine and surveillance.

He said that India has supported other countries with supply of the vaccine during such global public health crises, and trained the personnel of several countries in the vaccine administration.

"By being a mitra (friend) to the global community, India has earned global trust by supplying indigenously made vaccines at this crucial hour", Vardhan said.

The GoM discussed issues regarding balancing domestic requirements vis-a-vis requests from other countries for Indian vaccines.

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