Task force to draft action plan for mass vaccination

It will incorporate operational guidelines of the government

Checks on: Health workers segregating samples collected for COVID-19 testing at a camp held in Gandhi Thidal.

The State-level Task Force meeting will be held on Saturday to draft the action plan for coronavirus mass vaccination programme in the Union Territory, Lt. Governor Kiran Bedi said on Thursday.

After a review meeting on the COVID-19 situation at the Raj Nivas, the Lt. Governor said the mass vaccination plan for the Union Territory would broadly incorporate the operational guidelines of the Government of India in chalking out a strategy for the roll out.

A comprehensive plan will be evolved to regulate the crowd that converges at the beach promenade on New Year eve. Modalities will be evolved for online registration and determination of the carrying capacity of beach promenade to ensure a Covid compliant and safe New Year celebration, Ms. Bedi said.

The policy on home quarantine of positive patients has been arrived at in consultation with the ICMR. Following the Covid war room flagging a threat of infection from cases coming from outside Mahe, border checks at Mahe have been strengthened, the Lt. Governor said. Meanwhile, the Union Territory logged 40 new cases while no deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.

The death toll remained at 622. The overall tally stood at 37,622 while recoveries aggregated to 36,693 patients.

Of the new cases identified at the end of the examination of 3,144 samples, Puducherry reported 21, Mahe 13, Karaikal five and Yanam one. The test positivity rate was 1.27%, case fatality rate 1.65% and recovery rate 97.5%.

After 32 patients were discharged during the last 24 hours, the active cases in the Union Territory stood at 307. Of these, 204 were in hospitals and 103 in home isolation.

As many as 4.44 lakh samples were tested so far and 4.02 lakh were found to be negative.

8 positive in Cuddalore

Cuddalore district reported eight fresh cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, taking the district’s tally to 24,473. While 24,110 persons have been discharged, the active cases in the district stand at 48.

In Villupuram district, 14 persons tested positive, taking the total number of cases in the district to 14,826.

Kallakurichi district reported five positive cases, taking the overall tally to 10,747.