India’s public health response to the Omicron wave led to better results, compared to many countries that are grappling with the surge in daily cases, according to the Health Ministry on Thursday. Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, in a webinar titled ‘India’s Public Health Response to manage Covid’, lauded the efforts of all NGOs and stakeholders involved in the government’s vaccination drive. One of the key achievements of the country has been its capacity to deliver over 1.8 billion Covid vaccine doses across a multitude of regions and terrains, he said. 

“At a time when many countries, including China and South Korea, are reporting an increase in the number of daily Covid cases, India’s daily cases have reported a substantial decline, combined with increased recovery rate and high levels of vaccination. Timely measures, including testing, tracking and treating approach with focussed genome sequencing, containment through containment zones, community surveillance, protocols for home isolation and effective clinical treatment, have contributed to India’s Covid management,” said Mandaviya. India has not only produced quality and affordable vaccines, it also exported medicines to more than 150 countries on humanitarian grounds. The Vaccine Maitri program of the government has been appreciated globally, he added.

“CoWIN app turned out to be the heart of the vaccination drive. Many challenges like delivery and fair equitable distribution of vaccines were addressed through timely transparent technological and physical interventions. Vaccine hesitancy was prevented through mass communication. Procurement, logistics were solved through robust cold chain ecosystem development,” said Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer of Niti Aayog. 

Covid cases fall

Meanwhile, India reported 2,539 Covid cases on Friday with 60 deaths in the last 24 hours till 8:00 am, according to the Health Ministry. The cases have been continuously less than 10,000 since February 28, with the weekly positivity rate at 0.42 per cent. In addition, the Health Minister of Delhi, Satyender Jain,  on Thursday said that this is the first time since March 2020 that there is no Covid patient has been admitted in the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital (LNJP).

“All Covid patients of the third wave have been successfully treated and discharged from LNJP Hospital,” said Jain. Besides this, Uttar Pradesh lifted all the Covid-related restrictions on Thursday in view of receding Covid cases. Swimming pools, water parks, and Anganwadi centers will also be opened. However, masks and Covid-appropriate behaviour are still to be adhered to.

Further, the Maharashtra government, on Thursday, issued guidelines for the Holi festival in view of resurgence of Covid cases in several countries, including China and Hong Kong. It asked people to avoid mass gathering. It advised the people of Maharashtra against taking ‘palkhi’ processions to households during Holi. Instead, local administration should arrange for darshan at the local temple, said the State government in a circular. 

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