New Delhi, September 23: The government Thursday announced that differently-abled people and those with restricted mobility will be given Covid vaccine doses at their homes.
Addressing a press conference here, Union Health Ministry officials also said the country is still in the midst of the second wave of COVID-19 even though the number of daily new cases are declining.
However, they added, 62.73% of total infections reported last week were from Kerala alone, which is also the only state with over 1 lakh active Covid cases.
Thirty-three districts in the country are now reporting over 10 per cent weekly positivity rate, while 23 are recording between 5-10 per cent, the officials said.
Under Covid guidelines for the upcoming festival season, mass gatherings has to be avoided in containment zones and in districts with over 5 per cent positivity rate, they said.
On the ongoing vaccination drive, they said that 66% of the country’s adult population has been given at least one jab while 23% is fully vaccinated.
They also said that 63.7% doses of COVID-19 vaccine has been administered at centres in rural areas and 35.4 per cent in urban areas.
A total of 68.2 lakh doses (approximately 0.95%) has been administered at Covid vaccination centres not tagged as rural or urban, they said.
On the UK rule of 10-day quarantine for those vaccinated in India, the ministry officials said it was a discriminatory practice.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said both the countries are in dialogue on the matter.
“We believe that the dispensation that is proposed to be implemented from October 4 is a discriminatory practice. Both the sides are in dialogue and we believe a resolution will be found. We do reserve the right to reciprocate in a similar manner,” Bhushan said. (PTI)
