Amid rising cases of coronavirus, Jharkhand Health Minister Banna Gupta on Friday urged the Centre to provide at least 50,000 COVID vaccine doses to continue with the immunisation drive in the state.
Gupta raised the issue in a review meeting conducted by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya virtually.
“Jharkhand runs out of COVID vaccine doses. We had sent a request to provide at least 50,000 doses to the state two-week back but its arrival is still awaited," Gupta told the central minister.
With 11 new COVID-19 cases reported on Thursday, the total number of active patients in Jharkhand rose to 60, according to a bulletin of state health department.
Two persons were cured of the disease in the past 24 hours, it said.
Gupta, however, claimed that the majority of patients are having mild symptoms and they are under treatment at their respective homes.
In the meeting with state health ministers and principal and additional chief secretaries, Mandaviya stressed on identifying emergency hotspots by monitoring trends of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) cases, ramping up testing and vaccination besides ensuring readiness of hospital infrastructure.
Gupta said that the union minister asked the state to conduct mock drills of infrastructure in hospitals and medical colleges on April 10 and 11 and review the health preparedness with district administrations on April 9.
The state minister also sought Mandaviya's intervention for approval of four RT-PCR laboratories at Khunti, Lohardaga, Koderma and Pakur from Indian Council of Medical Research.
-With PTI Input
