Dr Harsh Vardhan chairs 18th meeting of Group of Ministers (GOM) on COVID-19 : 10th jul20 ~ E-Pao! Headlines

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Dr Harsh Vardhan chairs 18th meeting of Group of Ministers (GOM) on COVID-19
GoM informed of measures to keep people informed
Source: IT News / PIB

New Delhi, July 09 2020: The 18th meeting of the high-level Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 was held under the chairpersonship of Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare by a video-conference, here today.

He was joined by Dr S Jaishankar, Union Foreign Minister, Shri Hardeep S Puri, Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Sh Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State, Health & Family Welfare, and Sh Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of State, Chemical and Fertilizers, & Shipping.

Dr Vinod Paul, Member (Health), Niti Aayog joined the meeting through video conference link.

At the outset, the GoM was briefed on the current status of COVID-19 in India.

The global comparison between the five most affected countries clearly depicted that India has one of the lowest cases per million (538) and deaths per million (15) compared the global average of 1453 and 68.7, respectively.

Within the country, eight states (Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat) contribute to around 90% of the active caseload and 49 districts account for 80% of active caseload, as of today.

Moreover, six states (Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal) account for 86% of total deaths, and 32 districts account for 80% deaths.

The GoM was briefed that special efforts were made in the regions showing higher Case Fatality Rate.

In a detailed presentation by Shri Amit Khare, Chairman of Empowered Group-8 (on Information, Communication and Public Awareness), the GoM was briefed on the key steps taken in Communication of Information and in raising public awareness.

The group received 6,755 alerts of fake news out of which 5,890 were replied to directly and rebuttals were published to 17 foreign media stories.

The group also coordinated the issue of 98 daily COVID-19 bulletins, 92 media briefings and 2,482 press releases.

The group played a pro-active role in behavioral change campaign during the pandemic and in creating awareness regarding the relief measures to farmer and MSME units under the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan launched by the Prime Minister.

It was highlighted that the mental health issues related to COVID-19 pandemic will be a major part of the communication strategy going forward through discussions in the media.

Dissemination of messages and information in regional language was focused on to reach maximum audience through interpersonal and mass communication.

Ms Preeti Sudan, Secretary (Health), Rajesh Bhushan, OSD (MoHFW), Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO (Niti Aayog), Dr Balram Bharagava, DG (ICMR), P D Vaghela, Secretary (Pharma), Sanjeev Ranjan, Secretary (Shipping), Ravi Capoor, Secretary (Textiles), Parameswaran Iyer, Secretary (DWS),Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary (MEITY), representatives of ITBP, participated through virtual media.

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