Election Comm reviews Covid situation in 5 poll-bound states

New Delhi: The Election Commission on Thursday reviewed the Covid situation with the Union Health Secretary and experts, collecting inputs on necessary safety measures to be ensured during the democratic exercise and emphasising the need for vaccination of all eligible people in five poll-bound states, sources said.

The government shared with the poll panel the weekly positivity rate, percentage of those who have received the first and the second Covid vaccine and the number of Omicron cases in the five states.

In a separate meeting, the poll panel discussed the law and order situation in the five states — Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab and Manipur — with Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla. Elections are due in the five states and the Commission is expected to announce poll dates in the next few days.

Besides Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, the meeting to assess the Covid situation was also attended by AIIMS director Randeep Guleria and ICMR's Balram Bhargava, sources aware of the interactions said.

India on Thursday saw the biggest single-day jump of 495 Omicron cases, taking the total number of infections of the new variant to 2,630, according to Union Health ministry data.

Of the total cases, Maharashtra has the maximum at 797, followed by Delhi at 465, Rajasthan 236, Kerala 234, Karnataka 226, Gujarat 204 and Tamil Nadu 121.

The country reported 90,928 fresh Covid infections, the highest in over 200 days, that pushed its caseload to 3,51,09,286, the data stated. As many as 91,702 new infections were reported on June 10 last year. The death toll climbed to 4,82,876 with 325 fatalities, the ministry said.

The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 148.58 crore on Thursday, with 1,64,98,400 beneficiaries in the age group of 15-18 years being given the first dose, according to the ministry data.

More than 87 lakh (87,66,164) vaccine doses have been administered till 7 pm on Thursday. It includes 35,98,243 doses administered to beneficiaries in the 15-18 years age group. Underlining the highly transmissible nature of Omicron and the preponderance of asymptomatic cases, the Centre has urged nine states and Union Territories to ramp up COVID-19 testing to ensure that infected people do not spread the virus to others.

In a letter to Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Jammu and Kashmir and Bihar, Additional Secretary of Union Health Ministry Arti Ahuja pointed out a considerable decline in COVID-19 testing amid rising cases and positivity rate and said it is a "cause of concern".

Meanwhile, the poll panel carried out a "complete review" of the Covid status and took inputs from medical experts on "safety measures to be ensured" during campaigning and polling.

It stressed to the Health Secretary the need to ensure complete vaccination for all eligible persons, the sources said.

In an earlier meeting with Bhushan on December 27, the poll panel had asked him to ramp up the vaccination drive in the five states.