As many as 180 districts in the country have reported not even single new case of COVID-19 for the last seven days, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said on Saturday. He added that no fresh infections have been reported in 18 districts in the last two weeks.
"For the last 7 days, 180 districts in the country have not seen a single new case of COVID-19. 18 districts have not recorded any cases in the last 14 days. 54 districts have not witnessed any new case in the last 21 days," the minister said.
Vardhan, who chaired a meeting of the high-level group of ministers, appraised the members about the growing trajectory of daily recoveries and said there were more than three lakh recoveries in the last 24 hours.
The number of patients in ICU beds is 4,88,861 while 1,70,841 patients and 9,02,291 patients are on ventilator and oxygen support. “This translates to 1.34 per cent of COVID caseload being in ICU, 0.39 per cent of cases on ventilators and 3.70 per cent of COVID patients on oxygen as on date,” he said.
The health minister informed the GoM that the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 16.73 crore, which includes nearly 23 lakh doses given on Friday. A total of 17.49 crore doses have been delivered to the states, out of which 16.65 doses have been consumed and 84 lakh doses are still available with the states. He further added that a total of 53.25 lakh doses are on the pipeline and will be supplied to the states soon.
Reiterating the importance of full protection through two COVID vaccine doses, Vardhan requested the states to set aside 70 per cent of the vaccines received through GoI channel for administration of the second dose.
The meeting was attended by Dr S. Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs, Hardeep S. Puri, Minister of Civil Aviation, Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, and Nityanand Rai, Minister of State for Home Affairs.
Dr V.K. Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog was also present virtually.
