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friends!” With the administration of more than 55.78 lakh vaccine doses in a span of 24 hours, the cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country have exceeded 170.21 crore (1,70,21,72,615), according to provisional reports till 7 am.
The COVID-19 vaccination for adolescents in the 15-18 age group commenced from January 3.
He also informed that insurance claims worth Rs 808 crore have been paid under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package’ (PMGKP) insurance scheme, launched on March 30, 2020, to families of 1,616 healthcare workers who died while being involved in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
Replying to a supplementary question asked by Congress MP K C Venugopal related to Covid deaths in Rajya Sabha, Mandaviya said health is a state subject and the related data is collected by the states and then reported to the central government.
He said the World Health Organisation has issued guidelines on collecting the data on COVID-19 deaths. Based on these guidelines, the Centre has created a platform and asked the states to submit the data on COVID-19 deaths on it, he added.
“So far, all the state governments have submitted data of 5.33 lakh deaths from COVID-19,” Mandaviya said. The minister asserted that the data is in public domain and the Centre has nothing to hide.
The Centre has also asked states to reconcile the data if they failed to submit it, he said, adding that many states have done that. Mandaviya pointed out that Kerala has been reconciling its data on a daily basis and the state has so far reconciled more than 20,000 deaths. “We do not have any problem. We disclose whatever information we get from the states,” he said.
On Tuesday, Mandaviya also said that the government will take a decision to vaccinate this group based on suggestions of an expert group. The government has constituted an expert group to give suggestions on which age group to be given COVID-19 vaccine first and accordingly vaccination for the 15-18 age group is underway, he said during the Question Hour.
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