Mumbai: CM Uddhav Thackeray congratulates staff of Palghar district administration and health dept for providing vaccines through drones

Mumbai: CM Uddhav Thackeray congratulates staff of Palghar district administration and health dept for providing vaccines through drones

Meanwhile, as many as 101 positive cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus have been detected across 11 states and union territories so far, the government said on Friday and advised people to keep new year celebrations at low intensity.

FPJ Web DeskUpdated: Friday, December 17, 2021, 06:21 PM IST
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Mumbai: CM Uddhav Thackeray congratulates staff of Palghar district administration and health dept for providing vaccines through drones | Twitter/@CMOMaharashtra

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has congratulated the officials and staff of the Public Health Department and the Palghar District Administration for successfully making vaccines available to remote areas of the district through drones.

The distance between Jawahar Stadium and Primary Health Center Zap is 25 km. Where it takes about an hour to cover this distance by road, 300 doses of the Covishield vaccine were sent by drone to Zap Primary Health Center in just 9 minutes and 304 people were immediately vaccinated. This innovative initiative was successfully completed by the Department of Public Health with the help of Blue Infinity Innovation Lab and IIFL Foundation. This has helped keep the vaccine cold chain intact, saving time and effort during travel.

The Chief Minister said that the drone transport of vaccines was a pioneering example and in the future it would be possible to give a new direction to the work of medicine, blood supply and organ transplantation.

Meanwhile, as many as 101 positive cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus have been detected across 11 states and union territories so far, the government said on Friday and advised people to keep new year celebrations at low intensity.

It said that though daily COVID-19 cases are below 10,000 for the past 20 days, there is a need to stay vigilant in view of the new variant and rising cases in other countries.

With the coronavirus' Omicron variant spreading very fast across Europe and other parts of the world, people need to avoid non-essential travel. They must also avoid mass gatherings, and new year celebrations need to be at low intensity, the government said.

Giving details of Omicron cases in India, it said Maharashtra has reported 32 cases of the variant, Delhi (22), Rajasthan (17), Karnataka (8), Telangana (8), Gujarat (5), Kerala (5), Andhra Pradesh (1), Chandigarh (1), Tamil Nadu (1) and West Bengal (1), the government said.

Citing the World Health Organization (WHO), it also said that the Omicron variant is spreading faster than the Delta variant of the coronavirus in South Africa, where Delta circulation was low.

It is likely that Omicron spread will outpace Delta variant where community transmission occurs, the government said citing the WHO.

On the COVID-19 situation in the country, it said 19 districts are reporting weekly positivity between 5 and 10 per cent and five districts over 10 per cent.

Districts with over 5 per cent Covid case positivity rate need to ensure restrictive measures until it is below 5 per cent for at least two weeks, the government said.

It assured that sufficient systematic and strategic sampling is being undertaken for genome sequencing for detection of Omicron cases in India.

On COVID-19 vaccination, the government said that India has so far administered 82.8 crore first doses and 53.72 crore second doses.

More than 136 crore doses have been administered in the country which is 2.8 times the total doses administered in the US, it said.

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