Srinagar: Amid the rising Coronavirus cases in India, the country’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, on Monday said that it has decided to deploy high-level Central teams in four states including Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha, to assist in controlling the COVID surge.
“The teams will support the states’ efforts towards strengthening containment, surveillance, testing and efficient clinical management of positive cases,” reads a statement by Health Ministry.
The teams, according to the Ministry, will also guide the states in effectively managing the challenges related to timely diagnosis and follow up and each of the multi-sectoral teams will comprise an epidemiologist and a public health expert.
So far, the COVID cases in Uttar Pradesh have gone up to 2,25,632 and Odisha has reported 1,00,934 infections till date. Jharkhand has recorded 38,435 cases and Chhattisgarh is at 30,092.
Out of these four states, Uttar Pradesh has reported the highest number of deaths – 3423, whereas, Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have reported 482, 410 and 269 deaths, respectively.
In last month, India reported a huge number of deaths from the infection, with 28,859 fatalities detailed in August, a half hop from the earlier month’s deaths.
Pertinently, with the fresh 78,357 COVID infections registered in 24 hours, India’s tally has jumped to 37,69,523.
According to the Health Ministry of India, there are 8,01,282 active cases, and more than 29 lakh patients have recovered.
Meanwhile, United States has decided to go alone and not work with an international cooperative effort to develop and distribute a vaccine, reports said.
The decision, according to reports, is believed to be guided by Donald Trump’s reservation about the World Health Organisation.
Globally, the coronavirus has infected more than 2.56 crore people and killed over 8.55 lakh, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s tracker. Over 1.69 crore people across the world have recovered from the infection.
Currently, there are over 150 coronavirus vaccines in various stages of development in several countries with a few making advanced progress in clinical trials.
Earlier, Russia announced that the country has already produced the first batch of its COVID vaccine.
In India, a Pune based vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India (SII) has decided to manufacture 100 million COVID vaccine doses which will be capped at Rs 225 per dose.
While the Oxford coronavirus vaccine and a Chinese vaccine showing positive results in the first round of human trials, the Moderna has shown positive results among mice and developed immunity against the disease upon testing.
India’s Covaxin, developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has also entered the human trial stage and is expected to come out with results in a month.
Pertinently, on August 15, the Prime Minister of India said that three probable COVID vaccines are currently being developed in India and large-scale production will begin as soon as scientists give a green signal.
The Prime Minister paid tribute to all the frontline workers involved in India’s fight against the pandemic.
However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned world governments against “vaccine nationalism” and urged leaders to make plans on how to share life-saving inoculations against coronavirus.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the threat of COVID can only be snuffed out with global coordination, especially when a vaccine is developed.
Free Press Kashmir is now on Telegram. Click here to Join.
