Coronavirus News LIVE Updates: As a simulation of the actual execution of the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out that is expected to begin in a few days, another round of dry run will be conducted in all districts across states and UTs, except UP and Haryana, today to ensure efficient planning and management of the immunisation process. Each district has identified three types of session sites, similar to the previous dry run conducted on January 2, including a public health facility (district hospital/medical college), private health facility and rural or urban outreach sites, the Union health ministry said on Wednesday.
In this regard, a meeting of Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan with the health ministers of states and Union territories is scheduled to take place on January 7 to guide them on conducting the dry run, the ministry said. "The vaccine dry run will be conducted on January8 in all districts across India, except for UP and Haryana. COVID-19 vaccine dry run has already been conducted in all districts in UP on January5 and Haryana is conductingit in all its districts tomorrow (Thursday)," an official source said.
Global Cases Near 88M | The overall global coronavirus caseload has increased to nearly 88 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 1.89 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University. In its latest update on today morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 8,79,52,778 and 18,95,925, respectively. The US is the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 2,15,43,310 and 3,64,735, respectively, according to the CSSE. India comes in second place in terms of cases at 1,03,95,278, while the country's death toll soared to 1,50,336.
Jan 08, 2021 08:22 (IST)
The World Health Organisation denied that Italian officials pressured it to spike a report into Italy's coronavirus response but said the UN agency should have shared the document with Italy's government before publishing it. Dr Hans Kluge, head of WHO's Europe office, said the agency's procedures had been overlooked, as he sought to explain WHO's decision to pull the report from its website a day after it was posted May 13. By then, it had already cleared all internal WHO approval protocols and been printed. The mystery over the spiked report became a headache for WHO and a problem for the Italian government. The document noted that Italy hadn't updated its influenza pandemic preparedness plan since 2006 and that its initial response as virus cases multiplied was improvised, chaotic and creative.
Jan 08, 2021 08:07 (IST)
2nd Dry Run for Vaccination Roll-out in Delhi | The authorities will conduct the second dry run for the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out in Delhi today and it will span across several districts of the national capital including South Delhi, South East Delhi and North West Delhi and New Delhi, officials said. The first dry run for COVID-19 vaccination roll-out was held in Delhi on January 2 for which three sites were chosen across the national capital. Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had reviewed the exercise at a dispensary in Daryaganj, and said COVID-19 vaccine will be provided to people in the national capital for free once it arrives, and asserted that the city government has made all preparations for the vaccination drive.
Jan 08, 2021 07:52 (IST)
France's Border With UK to Stay Closed to Contain Covid-19 Variant: PM | France would keep its border with Britain closed to contain a highly contagious new coronavirus strain after 19 cases of the mutated virus were detected at home, Prime Minister Jean Castex said. "On December 20, we closed (our) border with the United Kingdom. This measure will be extended until further notice," Castex said at a weekly press conference on the sanitary situation. Only certain categories of people would be allowed to enter French territory provided that they show a negative test, he added.
The Centre has asked four states recording a surge in COVID-19 cases — Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal — to maintain a "strict vigil" and take steps to curb the recent spike.
Jan 08, 2021 07:29 (IST)
Record 4K New Deaths in US | The United States counted a record number of daily coronavirus deaths Thursday at nearly 4,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The 3,998 deaths were recorded over the 24 hour period ending at 8:30 pm local time (0130 GMT Friday), during which the US notched 265,246 new infections, according to the university.
Jan 08, 2021 07:13 (IST)
Recovery Rate at 96.36% | India's recovery rate stands at 96.36%, which is amongst the highest in the world, says Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
Observing that life is more important in every sense in comparison to religious practices and beliefs, the Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed the West Bengal government to submit a report…
Jan 08, 2021 06:46 (IST)
Jharkhand reported 195 new Covid-19 cases and 195 recoveries and 1 death yesterday. The total number of cases now stands at 1,16,229 including 1,13,740 recoveries, 1,041 deaths, and 1,448 active cases: State Health Department
Media personnel are seen outside a health center being used for dry run or a mock drill for Covid-19 vaccine delivery in New Delhi on January 2, 2021. (Photo by Prakash SINGH / AFP)
"The Central government is gearing up for the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccine across the country. Union Ministry of Healthhas been pro-actively carrying out the preparations for roll-out of COVID-19 vaccine, in collaboration with states and UTs and all stakeholders, over the past couple of months to ensure that the preparations for roll-outare on track," the ministry said in a statement. The country's drugs regulator on Sunday approved Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield and the indigenously developed Covaxin of Bharat Biotech for restricted emergency use in the country.
"The roll out of COVID-19 vaccine is expected to begin in the near future. This milestone entails the need for testing of all planned mechanisms for conducting the vaccination drive in the country," the ministry said. The entire planning of the vaccination drive including beneficiary registration, microplanning and vaccination at the planned session site will be tested under the leadership of District Collector or District Magistrate during the dry run.
The dry run will also familiarize the state, district, block and hospital level officers on all aspects of the COVID vaccine roll out. "This activity will help administrators in strengthening the linkages between planning, implementation and reporting mechanisms, identification of any residual challenges prior to the actual implementation and to provide confidence to the programme managers at all levels to carry out a smooth implementation of the vaccination drive," the ministry said.
The Union health ministry will be in constant touch with the states and UTs throughout the day to seek feedback, provide support and ensure timely resolution of the identified challenges before the actual vaccination roll-out. To facilitate the entire vaccination process a software named 'Co-WIN' has been developed by the health ministry for real time information on vaccine stocks, their storage temperature and individualized tracking of beneficiaries for the coronavirus vaccine.
This software will assist the programme managers across all levels in conduct of the vaccination sessions. A dedicated 24x7 call centre has also been established for technical queries of Co-WIN users. The cold chain infrastructure (like walk-in-freezers, walk-in-coolers, ice-lined refrigerators, deep freezers) along with sufficient supplies of syringes and other logistics have been ensured to begin COVID-19 vaccination drive. Around 1.7 lakh vaccinators and 3 lakh vaccination team members have been trained on the process to be followed at the vaccination sites which include beneficiary verification, vaccination, cold chain and logistics management, bio-medical waste management, AEFI management and reporting on Co-WIN software. In a massive nation-wide exercise on January 2, an end-to-end mock drill on COVID-19 vaccine administration was conducted in all states and UTs at 286 session sites spread across 125 districts.
More than 75 lakh beneficiaries have been registered till date on the Co-WIN software, the ministry had said earlier. The entire operational planning and IT platform has been field tested in four states -- Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Punjab and Gujarat -- on December 28 and 29 and on the basis of the feedback received minor enhancements have been made in the IT system, it had said.
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