The Prime Minister during his meeting with all CMs said that testing, clinical care facilities need to be strengthened in Tier 2 & 3 cities - Dr VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog * Today's most imp development is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a detailed discussion with states and Union Territories on COVID-19 situation and vaccination. * On 15th March, 8.34 million COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered worldwide, of which India alone administered 36% of doses - Health Ministry We have told the States that vaccine wastage needs to be drastically reduced - Health Ministry

Telangana and Andhra Pradesh recorded 17.6% and 11.6% of vaccine wastage respectively. * India's overall percentage of COVID-19 vaccine wastage is 6.5%. More of the same means - testing, tracking and Treating - Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan * We have requested the states to do more of the same in an efficient manner. * 70 districts in 16 states have seen an increase in COVID-19 cases by 150% in last 15 days - Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan Positivity rate is less than 1%, however, it has increased from 0.4% to 0.6% - Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan * In the last 24 hours, more than 400 cases have been reported in Delhi. * Till now, 3.51 crore total doses of COVID19 vaccine administrated - Health Ministry Our advice to the Karnataka government is to increase the absolute number of tests - Health Ministry * Karnataka's case positivity rate is 1.3%. * Mortality Rate is less than 2% even when certain States/UTs are seeing a surge - Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan

This shows that COVID-19 appropriate behaviour is not being followed - Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan * Punjab's positivity rate is now 6.8% this is worrying. In total, 28,903 people were reported to be infected with the deadly contagious virus and 188 people succumbed to the disease in the last 24 hours. The country also reported the highest number of COVID-related deaths this year. India on Wednesday recorded the highest daily spike in coronavirus infections in 2021. Union Home Minister Amit Shah also attended the crucial meeting which is aimed at discussing actions needed to be taken to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The meeting assumed great significance as some states including Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu continue to report a surge in the COVID daily new cases. PM Modi expressed serious concern over the issue of wastage of vaccines doses. The prime minister called for ramping up testing in smaller towns and cautioned against the spread of the disease in villages. While addressing the nation the PM advised states to increase the use of RT-PCR tests for Covid-19 detection as cases surge. Addressing a routine briefing, Bhushan said that 60 per cent of the active cases in the country are in Maharashtra.Įarlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level virtual meeting with chief ministers and health ministers of high-burden states on Wednesday to review the COVID-19 situation. New Delhi: 70 districts in 16 states have seen an increase in COVID-19 cases by 150 per cent in the last 15 days, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said on Wednesday.

Pune corona tracker