In the wake of spike of Covid 19 cases in Chhattisgarh state Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel chaired a virtual meeting with the representatives of various media outlets in capital city Raipur today and informed that he has requested Prime Minister Modi to set the minimum age of vaccination as 18 years, a government statement said on Friday.
Apart from asking support from the media, the CM said that in this time of crisis, private hospitals should adopt a humanitarian approach in the treatment of patients.
Providing information about the status of COVID-19 cases in the state, Chief Minister said that the state's COVID positivity rate increased to one percent in the month of March 2021 and the escalated to 24 percent on April 7.
Raipur, Durg, Rajnandgaon, Mahasamund and Bemetara are the districts with the highest number of COVID positive cases in the state.
He said that Chhattisgarh is one of the few states in the country, where the maximum number of people are being tested per 10 lakh population. Currently the daily average of COVID testing is 39 thousand 4. In Chhattisgarh, 1435 tests per 10 lakh population are being done every day, while the national average for the same is 929 tests per 10 lakh population per day.
The government has established 36 specialized COVID hospitals and 66 COVID care centers have been established by the state government to provide treatment to the COVID-19 patients. 78 private hospitals of the state have also been authorized for COVID-19 treatment. There are a total of 16 thousand 207 beds, including 3446 oxygen facilities, 902 HDUs and 1167 ICU beds in the state.
About the progress of COVID vaccination campaign, CM informed that till April 8, 2021, a total of 37 lakh 27 thousand 552 vaccine doses have been provided in the state.