Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, 9 March, chaired a high-level meeting to review the COVID-19 situation and the status of vaccination drive in the country.
The meeting was attended by Home Minister Amit Shah, Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare, Rajesh Bhushan, and Member (Health) NITI Aayog besides other senior officials.
During the meet, PM Modi was briefed about the COVID-19 situation across the world and in India, in the context of the highly transmissable Omicron variant of COVID-19. "India’s consistent efforts towards the vaccination campaign and an analysis of vaccine effectiveness to aid the lesser hospitalization and low severity and mortality during the recent surge was highlighted," read a press statement from the prime minister's office (PMO).
According to the government, pro-active and collaborative efforts led by the Union government helped in effective management of COVID-19 spread.
"India’s pandemic response and vaccination efforts have been lauded globally by WHO, United Nations, International Monetary Fund as well as in the reports of Harvard Business School and Institute for Competitiveness," the statement from PMO's office noted.
Speaking at the meet, PM Modi appreciated the relentless efforts that were put in by vaccinators, healthcare workers, central and state governments to curb the spread of the virus. He also underlined the significance of following the COVID-19 related protocols and requested continued support from community and urged individuals to get vaccinated.
Background
India has been witnessing a significant decline in the COVID-19 cases since the past few weeks. Just two days ago, on Tuesday, 8 March, it had registered 3,993 fresh COVID-19 infections, the lowest figure it had logged in 662 days.
In the last 24 hours, the country has seen 4, 575 new cases of coronavirus and as many as 7,416 COVID-19 patients recovered from the virus.
India has so far reported over 4.3 crore COVID-19 cases and 5,15,355 deaths. The country currently has an active caseload of 46,962.
More that 179.33 crore doses of the COVID-19 vaccine has been administered by the country so far.
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