Covid-19 Bulletin: 30 states have fatality rate lower than national average, Corona testing nears 3 lakh/day & more…

New Delhi: The trend of progressive increase in the number of recovered COVID-19 patients continues. The last 24 hours saw a total of 19,138 COVID-19 patients get cured, taking the cumulative figure of recovered cases among COVID-19 patients to 4,95,515. Consequently, the national recovery rate is 62.42% today. There are 2,76,882 active cases and all are under medical supervision.

Recovery rate @ 62.42%, fatality rate declines to 2.72%

As of today, we have 1218 Dedicated COVID Hospitals, 2705 Dedicated COVID Healthcare Centres and 10,301 COVID Care Centres. There are as many as 18 States/UTs with Recovery Rate more than the national average. At the national level, the Case Fatality Rate has declined to 2.72%. This is lower than the Fatality Rates observed in many other countries in the world.

There are 30 States/UTs which have a fatality rate lower than the national average. Acute focus on ensuring the nationwide implementation of Test, Track and Treat strategy has led to 1,10,24,491 samples tested for COVID-19 identification.

The tests/day also continue to depict an upward trend- during the last 24 hours 2,83,659 samples have been tested. The testing lab network in the country is further strengthened with 835 labs in the government sector and 334 private labs. There are as many as 1169 labs in the country.

41,000 Ayushman Bharat Health Centres provide Primary Covid Care

Health and Wellness Centers (HWCs) form the primary pillar of Ayushman Bharat envisaging to provisioning of universal and comprehensive primary health care through transformation of 1,50,000 Sub Health Centres and Primary Health Centres into HWCs by 2022. There are numerous examples of the extraordinary contribution being made by the AB-HWCs in the fight against COVID-19. As a testimony of the foundational work in the communities they serve, 8.8 crore footfalls have been recorded at the HWCs in the five months since February 1st of this year.

Apart from this, in the last five months, 1.41 crore individuals were screened at the HWCs for hypertension, 1.13 crore for diabetes and 1.34 crore for oral, breast or cervical cancer. Medicines were dispensed at the HWCs to about 5.62 lakh patients of hypertension and 3.77 lakh diabetes patients during the month of June alone, despite the challenges posed by COVID-19. As many as 6.53 lakh yoga and wellness sessions have also been organised at the HWCs in the period since the COVID-19 outbreak. From January to June, 2020, additional 12,425 HWCs were operationalized, increasing the number of HWCs from 29,365 to 41,790.

PM Modi inaugurates Asia’s biggest solar power project in Rewa

Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated to the Nation the Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Power project to the Nation via video conference today. It is Asia’s largest power project. Speaking on the occasion the Prime Minister said the Rewa project will make the entire region a major hub for pure and clean energy in this decade.

He said in all the programs of the government, priority is being given to environmental protection as well as Ease of Living. He referred to programmes like Swachch Bharat, supply of LPG cylinders to the poor households, the development of CNG networks as one which focussed on Ease of Living and improving the lives of the poor and the middle class. Referring to the ongoing crisis owing to the pandemic COVID-19, the Prime Minister said for either the Government or the society, compassion and vigilance are the greatest motivators to tackle this difficult challenge. He said right from the beginning of the Lockdown the Government ensured that the poor and needy are assured of supply of food and fuel. He said with the same spirit, the Government decided to continue the free supply of food and LPG till November this year, even during the phase of unlockdown. Not only this, the government is also giving full contribution to the EPF account of millions of private sector employees. Similarly, through the PM-Swanidhi scheme, those who have the least access to the system get benefitted.

ASEEM digital platform to bridge demand-supply gap of skilled workforce

In an endeavour to improve the information flow and bridge the demand-supply gap in the skilled workforce market, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship today launched ‘Aatamanirbhar Skilled Employee Employer Mapping (ASEEM)’ portal to help skilled people find sustainable livelihood opportunities. Apart from recruiting a skilled workforce, the Artificial Intelligence-based platform has been envisioned to strengthen their career pathways by handholding them through their journeys to attain industry-relevant skills and explore emerging job opportunities, especially in the post COVID era. Announcing the launch of the ASEEM portal, Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey, Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, said that the initiative aims to accelerate India’s journey towards recovery by mapping skilled workforce and connecting them with relevant livelihood opportunities in their local communities especially in the post COVID era.

Rajnath Singh holds telephonic conversation with Korean Defence Minister

Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh today spoke over telephone with Minister of National Defence of Republic of Korea (RoK) Mr Jeong Kyeong-Doo. The two Defence Ministers had discussions on issues pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic situation.

Rajnath Singh informed Mr JeongKyeong-Doo on India’s contribution to international efforts against COVID-19 and discussed areas of mutual cooperation in the global fight against the pandemic. The Ministers agreed to work together to deal with the complex challenges posed by this pandemic. During the telephonic conversation, the Ministers reviewed the progress on various bilateral defence cooperation initiatives and expressed commitment to further promote defence cooperation engagements between the Armed Forces.

PMGKAY & ANBA to feed the poor during pandemic

Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan has said, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi started the two biggest food grains distribution scheme-PMGKAY and ANBA for poor and needy persons, so that no one sleeps hungry at the time of Covid-19 pandemic. Paswan also briefed media about the cabinet decision to allow extra time period for distribution of balance of allocated free food grains to beneficiaries of AatmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan till 31st August 2020.

Paswan said that the implementation of these two schemes will ameliorate the hardships faced by the poor and needy due to economic disruption caused by Covid-19 outbreak in the country. The minister informed that the states and UTs have distributed 2,32,433 MT of food grains to 2.24 crore beneficiaries in May and to 2.25 crore beneficiaries in June,2020. He informed that around 33,620 MT whole gram have been dispatched to the states and UTs. He mentioned that a total of 201.1 LMT food grains have been allocated for PMGKAY-2 to States and UTs for the 5 months period July to November 2020. This includes 91.14 LMT wheat and 109.94 LMT rice.

‘Bamboo sector to play pivotal role in post-COVID economy’

Union Minister of State Dr Jitendra Singh today said that Bamboo sector will be one of the important components of India’s Post-COVID economy. Addressing a webinar with various clusters of Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre (CBTC) and persons associated with Bamboo Trade, he said that Bamboo will propel the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan in the North Eastern Region and isgoing to be an important vehicle of trade for India and the sub-continent. The Minister said that Bamboo is not only vital to North East India’s Post- COVID economy but it will also herald a new momentum for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s clarion call of “Vocal for Local”.