Shillong, July 8 – The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry has asked nine States, mostly in the North Eastern Region of the country, one of which is Meghalaya to ensure strict compliance of Covid appropriate behaviour, even as daily cases in the state have been fluctuating and the majority of the population is yet to be vaccinated against the viral infection.
Union Health Secretary, Rajesh Bhushan has written letters to Chief Secretaries of Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, Assam, Manipur, Sikkim and Odisha to take strict containment measures, ramping up of testing, augmentation of health infrastructure, effective clinical management.
The States have also been asked to speed up the vaccination drive of all citizen aged above 18 years.
On the other hand, Joint Secretary of Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, Lav Agarwal said that 80 per cent of new cases in India reported from 90 districts and 14 out of 90 districts are from North Eastern states.
“The Government of India has supported North Eastern States by following a proactive, pre-emptive, graded approach for fighting the COVID pandemic,†Agarwal said in a virtual interaction with media professionals and Health Correspondents of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura organised by UNICEF.
Acknowledging the media as an important stakeholder in creating an enabling environment for vaccination by busting myths, fears and apprehensions surrounding COVID vacciantion, the Union Health official said that more than 36.48 crore vaccine doses have been administered in the country till date.
He urged media persons to create a Jan Andolan (Public Movement) by applauding community warriors as role- models.
Highlighting specific challenges linked to North Eastern States, Agarwal said the Central Government has supported North Eastern States by following a proactive, pre-emptive, graded approach for fighting the COVID pandemic.
