Shimla: Himachal Pradesh is witnessing a continuous surge in the Covid-19 cases. The state on Saturday reported 416 new Covid positive cases, while 3 patients have died from the virus.
As per the NHM report, Solan district has recorded 120 new cases, Una 67 and Kangra tested 62 positive coronavirus cases. Sirmour and Hamirpur found 37 cases each, Mandi 32, Bilaspur 31, Shimla 14, Kullu 9, Chamba 5 and Kinnaur district found 2 new Covid cases.
174 Covid patients have recovered and now active caseload is 2,361 in the state.
Meanwhile, Union government has swung into the action and today Union Health Secretary chairs a High-Level meeting with 12 States and UTs, which have reported steep surge in the virus cases.
As per report, the country has seen the sharpest rise in weekly COVID cases and fatalities since May 2020 (7.7% and 5.1% respectively). The focus was on 46 districts that have contributed 71% of the cases and 69% of the deaths this month. Of total 36 districts in Maharashtra, 25 are most affected that account for 59.8% of the cases reported in the country during the past one week.
“Almost 90% of the COVID-19 deaths continue to be in the category of those aged above 45 yrs.”
A targeted approach to Vaccination in districts reporting large numbers
Union Govt has asked states to focus on universalization of vaccination in the specified priority population age groups as an aid to containment strategy in districts where maximum cases are being reported. It was reiterated that there is no shortage of vaccines. States to optimally utilise all vaccination capacities within the public and private sectors in all districts, and make full use of the available vaccine stocks without keeping a buffer stock in anticipation of a shortage. The four GMSD depots at Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata and Karnal have the requisite buffer stocks and all requirements of States, based on their daily consumption and available stocks, are being met.
States were also asked to make advance planning of logistics and infrastructure management for 1-1.5 months as any unchecked spread of infection among the community may overwhelm the local administration. Re-appropriation of unused vaccine stocks in a district to focus on the high burden districts was also suggested.
