On the occasion of DMA’s 62 Annual Delhi State Medical Conference (MEDICON 2021) , Delhi Medical Association (DMA) honored the Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan for Outstanding Service & Exemplary Work during COVID-19 Pandemic.
“It is a proud privilege and honour for me to be present here at MEDICON 2021 and receiving this award. I have several cherished memories of my time in the prestigious Delhi Medical Association (DMA), which has a rich history of some of the most esteemed medical professionals, not only in India but anywhere in the world.” said Dr. Harsh Vardhan
“COVID-19 Pandemic gave us the opportunity that all of us come together and put India before ourselves. Healthcare Workers (HCWs) & Frontline Workers, not just in this room, but across India, rose to the occasion and sacrificed not only their time with family, but also their own mental, physical and emotional health for this beloved nation. I want to thank you, your colleagues, your friends & family, and everyone else who gave you the strength and encouragement to serve our motherland during the time it needed us the most.” he added
.
In view of the increasing cases of daily Covid cases, the Union Health Secretary Shri Rajesh Bhushan and Dr. Vinod K. Paul, Member of NITI Aayog held a meeting today with the MDs (NHM) and Health Secretaries of 8 states to review the ongoing Public health measures of surveillance, containment and management of high active caseload reported in these states/UTs.
According to a report from PIB it was pointed out that 9 districts in Delhi, 15 in Haryana, 10 in Andhra Pradesh, 10 in Odisha, 9 in Himachal Pradesh, 7 in Uttarakhand, 2 in Goa, 1 in Chandigarh continue to be of concern as these districts are seeing a decrease in total tests being conducted, low share of RT-PCR tests, increase in weekly positivity and low number of contact tracing of the COVID positive cases.
States were specifically asked to:
- Continue with the effective strategy of ‘Test Track & Treat’ that had yielded rich dividends at the height of the pandemic.
- Improve overall testing in districts reporting reduction in testing
- Increase share of RT-PCR tests in districts dependent on high levels of antigen testing.
- Refocus on surveillance and stringent containment of those areas in selected districts which are seeing cluster of cases.
- Carry out an average close contact tracing of minimum of 20 persons per positive case.
- Focus on clinical management in districts reporting higher deaths.
- Actuate their health infrastructure to provide effective clinical management to all the patients as a surge in cases also affects the case fatality rate in those districts.
- Accelerate vaccination for priority population groups in districts reporting higher cases.
- Make optimal use of the available vaccine doses and focus on critical districts.
- To collaborate with the private hospitals to open up vaccination time-table for a minimum of 15 days and maximum of 28 days at a time.
- Promote COVID-appropriate behaviour through communication and enforcement.
The Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan and Dr. Balram Bhargava , Director General , ICMR inaugurated the new research building ‘Desikan Bhawan’ which is equipped with new COVID-19 diagnostic facility at ICMR-NJIL & OMD in Agra.
The ‘Desikan Bhawan’ is dedicated for research facilities like animal experimentation ,COVID-19 diagnosis , whole genome sequencing of different Mycobacterium species and phytochemical extraction from medicinal plants for anti-TB drug development .The capacity of COVID-19 Diagnostic Laboratory is around 1200 samples per day. This COVID diagnostic lab is loaded with Biosafety level 2(BSL2)cabinets, automated RNA extractors, and Real Time PCR machines with which the diagnostic results can be exported within a day.
The Central Government has rushed high level multi – disciplinary public health teams to Maharashtra and Punjab in view of the increase in number of daily new COVID-19 cases. They will be assisting the State Health Departments in surveillance , control and containment measures.
According to the statement released by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,“The high level team to Maharashtra will be led by Dr. P Ravindran, Sr. CMO, Disaster Management Cell, MOHFW. While the public health team to Punjab will be led by Dr. S K Singh, Director, National Center for Disease Control (NCDC), New Delhi.”
These teams will visit the States on immediate effect at the hotspot areas in the States and ascertain reasons for the surge.The team will also brief the Chief Secretary / Secretary Health on their observations and remedial measures to control the situation.
“The Union Government has been leading the fight against the Covid pandemic with a ‘Whole of Government’ and ‘Whole of Society’ approach under the umbrella strategy of ‘Cooperative Federalism’. As an ongoing effort to strengthen efforts of various State/UT Governments for COVID management, the Central Government has been deputing Central teams from time to time to visit various States/UTs. These teams interact with the State/UT authorities and get a first-hand understanding of the challenges and issues being faced by them so as to strengthen their ongoing activities and remove bottlenecks, if any. The reports of Central Teams are shared with the states for further follow up action.” Says the statement released by the Union Health Ministry
According to a data released by the Health Ministry, 5 states have reported a cumulative of 82% Covid cases in the last 24 hours. On the other hand, nearly 15 Lakh doses have been administered in this time.
A total of 18,327 new cases were registered in the last 24 hours from Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 10,216. It is followed by Kerala with 2,776 while Punjab reported 808 new cases.
India’s present active caseload now stands at 1.61% of India’s total Positive Cases. 108 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours. Six States account for 85.2%of the new deaths. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties (53). Kerala follows with 16 daily deaths and Punjab reported11 deaths in the last 24 hours.
As on Day-49 of the vaccination drive (5th March, 2021), total 14,92,201 vaccine doses were given. Out of which, 11,99,848 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 18,333 sessions for 1st dose (HCWs and FLWs) and 2,92,353 HCWs and FLWs received 2nd dose of vaccine.
More than 1.94 cr (1,94,97,704) vaccine doses have been administered through 3,57,478 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am today. These include 69,15,661 HCWs (1st dose), 33,56,830 HCWs (2nd dose), 63,55,989 FLWs (1st dose) and 1,44,191 FLWs (2nd Dose), 3,46,758 beneficiaries aged more than 45 years with specific co-morbidities (1st Dose) and 23,78,275 beneficiaries aged more than 60 years.
The countrywide vaccination drive in 48 days has vaccinated more than 1.77 Core. The vaccination drive was started on 16thJan2021, Frontline Workers from 2ndFeb2021 and Phase-2 from 1stMarch2021 for those who are more than 60 years old and people who are above age of 45 with specified co-morbid conditions.
According to the Union Ministry of Health, “A total of 1,77,11,287 vaccine doses have been given, as per the provisional report till 7 pm today. These include 68,38,077 HCWs who have taken the 1st dose and 30,82,942 HCWs who have taken the 2nd dose, 60,22,136 FLWs (1stdose), 54,177 FLWs (2nd dose), 14,95,016 beneficiaries more than 60 years old and 2,18,939 beneficiaries aged 45 and above with specific co-morbidities.”
On the occasion of World hearing day the Union Health Minister Dr.Harsh Vardhan released WHO report that observed 2 % of India’s population , maily children, suffered fom the condition of Otitis Media.
“So prevalent is the condition that some people even consider it natural for a child’s ears to discharge.”
Dr. Harsh Vardhan also observed and highlighted other hearing loss related problems due to high noise levels at workplaces, on the roads, hearing loss due to the use of ototoxic medicines and chemicals, the dangers of loud music and unsafe listening to people’s hearing health (with over 750 million smart phone users in India).
He also informed audience about the study, “A multi – centric cross-sectional survey conducted as per the WHO recommended Probability Proportional to Size (PPS) sampling technique assessed 92,097 people in the community across 6 sites in India. Age-appropriate audiological testing as per WHO norms including pure tone audiometry, tympanometry, oto-acoustic emissions, behavioral observation audiometry and ENT examination were all undertaken onsite in a specially designed sound treated audiological bus.” The sample size makes this the world’s largest such study to-date.
“The results have showed a changing profile of hearing loss in India’s population and in tune with similar changes in other countries as they move forward in economic development. The study showed that the disabling hearing loss affected 2.9% of the population and was noted to effect communication, education and work. The rural population had a far greater prevalence of hearing loss. The prevalence of total hearing loss, unilateral &bilateral was found to be as high as 9.93%. The geriatric population accounted for 40.5% of all hearing loss and 72.4% of all disabling hearing loss. The study also made a major contribution in identifying the risk factors associated with Sensory Neural Hearing Loss (SNHL): Smokeless Tobacco consumption, Heavy smoking, Leisure and work-related noise, and also excessive Residential Noise, are all noted as risk factors associated with SNHL.” states the release
Dr. Harsh Vardhan also informed the audience that with the COVID pandemic abating in India, the government plans to further strengthen our work on ear and hearing care based on the recommendations of the report:
- By improving services at community and primary levels through training of health workers for task sharing, in line with the strategies outlined in the report.
- Expanding access to affordable hearing technologies for all those in need.
- Using the power of Information Technology (IT) to raise awareness among our youth on safe listening as a means of hearing loss prevention.
India’s homegrown indigenous vaccine has shown 81% efficacy in phase-3 clinical trials. The phase – 3 clinical trials was conducted on 25,800 participants who received a vaccine or placebo in a 1:1 ratio.
“Today is an important milestone in vaccine discovery, for science and our fight against coronavirus. With today’s results from our Phase 3 clinical trials, we have now reported data on our COVID-19 vaccine from Phase 1, 2, and 3 trials involving around 27,000 participants.COVAXIN®️ demonstrates high clinical efficacy trend against COVID-19 but also significant immunogenicity against the rapidly emerging variants,” said Dr. Krishna Ella, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharat Biotech.
BBV152 contains a whole virion inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, which is produced in Vero cells. It is stable at 2 to 8°C (refrigerated) and is shipped in a ready-to-use liquid formulation that permits distribution using existing vaccine supply chain channels. BBV152 has a 28-day open vial policy as a unique product characteristic, thus reducing vaccine wastage by approximately 10-30%.
BBV152 is based on an established manufacturing platform with a better safety profile when compared to other vaccine platforms. The inclusion of the Algel-IMDG adjuvant enhances T-cell immune responses to COVID-19, leading to long-term protection.
“I want to thank every one of the participants, who volunteered to participate in this vital clinical trial, our partners, principal investigators across 25 study sites, and our team at Bharat Biotech who dedicated their time to this vaccine discovery,” said Mrs. Suchitra Ella, Joint Managing Director, Bharat Biotech. “We could not have achieved this public-private partnership milestone without the relentless commitment of those involved.”
“Bharat Biotech expects to share further details of the trial results as additional data become available. An additional interim analysis is planned for 87 cases, and the final analysis is planned for 130 cases. All data from the second interim and final analyses will be shared via pre-publication servers as well as submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for publication.” Says the statement released by Bharat BioTech
Dr. Krisha Ella’s Video byte – https://we.tl/t-WEbutiiBiE
Mrs. Suchitra Ella’s video byte -https://we.tl/t-oXp0kbXXJx