Cabinet Secretary reviews the COVID-19 situation in country

New Delhi [India], May 11 (ANI): Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Tuesday chaired a meeting with the States and UTs to review the COVID situation in the country and assured that no stone would be left unturned to provide timely oxygen supply and other medical resources to the hospitals.
The meeting was attended by chief secretaries and health secretaries of all states and UTs.
He briefed the states on the action taken by the Centre in controlling the effect of the COVID pandemic since last year and shared with them the work done by the Task Force and Expert Groups on crucial matters like improvement and augmentation of health infrastructure, research and production of vaccines, welfare of poor people, vaccination and supply of oxygen.
Gauba also appreciated the real-time work done by the states and UTs to augment health infrastructure.
He informed that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's active engagement with domestic industries for production and supply of LMO since September, 2020 has helped in resolving various logistics issues of transport of LMO on land, air and water.
"He emphasised the need of keeping the public informed about the action taken by the central and state governments and assured that no stone would be left unturned to provide timely oxygen supply and other medical resources to the hospitals," an official release said.
Gauba said that Prime Minister had constituted a Group of Experts for development and production of vaccines in the country in April, 2020 and another Group of Experts later in August 2020 for distribution of vaccines.
The priority groups were identified on the advice of experts and vaccination for these priority groups were supplied to the states free of cost. Thereafter, as per demand, other vulnerable groups were also included in the priority list. He insisted that those eligible for second dose of vaccination should be given priority and that vaccination wastage should be minimized.
Expressing concern over the misinformation on the subject of vaccination, he mentioned that all vaccines that are procured either by the central government or the state governments, are actually meant for the public in the states and there is no consumption at the central level.
The Health Secretary requested the states to prioritise in terms of testing, intensive action and local containment of the pandemic, strengthening of hospital infrastructure, augmentation of human resources, rational utilisation of oxygen, etc.
He informed about the plan to install 1,213 PSA plants within the next three months. Reiterating the judicious use of vaccines, he stressed upon the need for an awareness campaign on the importance of completion of both doses of vaccination for better immunity.
The release said states should constitute dedicated teams to interact with the vaccine producers on a daily basis. (ANI)