Amid rising coronavirus cases in the country, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan will chair a review meeting with states on the current COVID-19 situation and the vaccination status, through video conferencing on Tuesday, a source said.

With over 80,000 new infections, fresh Covid-19 cases in the week ending Sunday surged to the highest in nearly four months. However, the deaths from the virus have remained low compared to previous outbreaks.

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As per the Union Ministry of Health and Family Affairs, the nation recorded 11,793 fresh Covid infections in a span of 24 hours, which is less than the previous day’s count of 17,073. In the same period, the country reported 27 more deaths, taking the nationwide toll to 5,25,047.

Meanwhile, the daily positivity rate has also declined to 2.49 percent, while the weekly positivity rate currently stands at 3.36 percent.

As of Tuesday morning, India’s Covid-19 vaccination coverage exceeded 197.31 crore achieved via 2,56,30,111 sessions.

Meanwhile, the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) in a meeting held on Friday recommended Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) for India’s first mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, sources said.

The Drugs controller general of India (DCGI) is expected to give Emergency Use Authorisation to Gennova’s mRNA vaccine any time soon.

The SEC under India’s drug regulator found data submitted by Gennova Biopharmaceuticals satisfactory in the Friday meeting.

Last week on June 23, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya reviewed the COVID and vaccination situation in the country. The Union Minister chaired a meeting with key experts and officials.

In a high-level meeting, Mandaviya advised strictly to monitor the Covid situation in the country focusing on vaccination of the elderly population, school-going children and surveillance and genome sequencing.

India has been witnessing a high number of COVID-19 cases over the last couple of weeks. States like Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Haryana, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Gujarat are reporting more than 1,000 cases daily.

The Union Minister stressed on the need to focus on districts reporting high case positivity and undertake adequate testing (with a higher proportion of RTPCR) and effective Covid-19 surveillance to assess and control the spread of infection in a timely manner.

Mandaviya directed the officials to continue to focus on surveillance and on whole-genome sequencing (WGS) to scan for any possible mutation.

He also directed monitoring of hospitalizations due to COVID19, and SARI/ILI cases.

He exhorted to increase the pace of vaccination including booster doses in districts reporting high cases. “As there are adequate vaccine doses available, let there be no vaccine wastage while focusing on accelerating vaccination among the eligible and vulnerable groups,” he directed.