Walter de sa, Principal of St. Xavier's College, Mapusa, Goa

The Centre on Monday advised the five poll-bound states of Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab to ramp up the COVID testing and vaccination drive for the eligible population and asked them to draw up district-wise weekly vaccination implementation plans.According to a statement issued by the Union Health Ministry, the Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan held a high-level meeting with the poll-bound states to review the public health response measures for containment and management of COVID-19, and the vaccination status in these states.During the meeting, the states were advised to speedily ramp up the COVID-19 vaccination of all eligible population for the first dose and ensure that those who were due for the second dose are administered the second dose.The poll-bound states were also advised to exponentially increase the testing to ensure that the COVID infected cases are identified promptly for timely initiation of public health response measures, and to ensure that there is no sudden upsurge in numbers due to low testing."District-wise weekly vaccination implementation plans are required to be drawn up for this purpose. The state authorities were also asked to review the implementation status on a daily basis," the ministry said."While Uttarakhand and Goa have reported vaccination coverage for the first and second doses higher than the national average, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Manipur have COVID-19 vaccination coverage numbers below the national average. Total of 142.38 crore vaccination doses have been administered as on date, of which more than 83.80 crore vaccine doses are for the first dose and more than 58.58 crore are second doses of COVID-19 vaccine," it stated."The state authorities were strongly advised to ensure that recommended COVID Appropriate Behavior is strictly followed and adequate measures are undertaken for their effective enforcement," it added.Meanwhile, India has logged 6,531 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed on Monday.The tally of cases of the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 in the country has risen to 578.( With inputs from ANI )Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

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