Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan chaired the 23rd meeting of the high-level Group of Ministers on COVID-19 by video-conference yesterday. He said that less than 12,000 cases were reported in the last 24 hours and the Active Caseload has reduced to just 1.73 lakhs. Dr Harsh Vardhan said, India has flattened its COVID-19 Curve and 146 districts have no new cases since the last seven days. He added that 18 districts have no new cases since 14 days, six districts since 21 days and 21 districts since the last 28 days. This has been achieved with pro-active testing of which more than 19.5 crore have been conducted so far. The current testing capacity rests at 12 lakhs per day. He added that out of the total active cases, a meagre 0.46 per cent are on ventilators, 2.20 per cent are in ICU and just 3.02 per cent are on oxygen support. Dr Harsh Vardhan stated that 165 cases of UK Variant have been reported so far. They are kept under supervised quarantine and surveillance.

Dr Harsh Vardhan said, India has supported other countries with supply of the COVID-19 vaccine during such global public health crisis and trained the personnel of several countries in vaccine administration. He added that by being a 'Mitra' to the global community, India has earned global trust by supplying indigenously made vaccines at this crucial hour.

Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has stressed on the need for transparent and timely sharing of crucial information on public health emergencies by undertaking rapid risk assessment. He said, it is important to strike a balance between public health and trade and travel.

While addressing an event on Restoring Cross Border Mobility, he said, conducting risk assessments would entail rapid analysis of causative agents, their origin and transmission dynamics, affected population and potential impact on health, livelihood and economy. Underlining the COVID-19 pandemic impact on cross border movement, the Minister said that the pandemic has severely affected the world economy by disrupting the supply chains.

Referring to detection of Covid-19 mutant variants in some countries, the Minister emphasized on the need for adopting the Standard Operating Procedures for international contact tracing. He said, the new variant has emerged as another impediment in reducing the existing travel and trade restrictions that the countries have imposed in a bid to restrict the spread of COVID-19.