Ramp up covid testing, monitor home isolation: Health minister tells southern states

New Delhi: In a meeting with the Health Ministers of Southern States/UTs on Friday, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya spoke about e-Sanjeevani, teleconsultation, monitoring of home isolation, increasing RTPCR in less testing states, expediting expenditure under ECRP-II. Emphasis is placed on bringing and encouraging 15- Vaccination of 17-year-olds, sources told news agency ANI.

Mansukh Mandaviya today chaired a high level virtual meeting with the Health Ministers of the Southern States/UTs Health Ministers. State health ministers from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, Lakshadweep, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands participated in the meeting.

Meanwhile, today India has achieved another milestone after completing 10 million doses or the third vaccine shot given to the eligible population.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in his tweet on Friday, “The world’s largest vaccination campaign under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is continuously scaling new heights.”

“In just 19 days, more than 1 crore precautionary doses have been given to health care and frontline workers and eligible people above 60+ age,” Mandaviya said.

In the third wave of ongoing COVID-19 in the country, the national telemedical services portal eSanjeevani is gaining momentum.

E-Sanjeevani, which is an integrated telemedicine solution, was launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in November 2019. The service is to facilitate free consultation with doctors through video conferencing from home.

This system was developed for people to avoid visiting hospitals in the ongoing pandemic.

India’s first telemedicine service, which works through video conferencing, can be availed by visiting the website esanjeevaniopd.in.

The virtual platform was developed by C-DAC as an initiative of the National Health Mission for the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare which works from 8 AM to 8 PM.

Mandaviya on Tuesday held a high-level COVID review meeting with nine northern states and union territories, where they advised sharing of COVID testing and vaccination data in a timely manner. He asked the states seeing a decline in COVID-19 testing to increase it through RTPCR.

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