• To make India’s public health surveillance system more responsive and predictive to enhance preparedness for action at all levels.
• Citizen-friendly public health surveillance system will ensure individual privacy and confidentiality, enabled with a client feedback mechanism.
• Improved data-sharing mechanism between Centre and states for better disease detection, prevention, and control.
• India aims to provide regional and global leadership in managing events that constitute a public health emergency of international concern.

The white paper was released by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar; Member (Health) DrVinod K Paul; CEO Amitabh Kant; and Additional Secretary DrRakesh Sarwal.

‘Vision 2035: Public Health Surveillance in India’is a continuation of the work on health systems strengthening. It contributes by suggesting mainstreaming of surveillance by making individual electronic health records the basis for surveillance. Public health surveillance (PHS) is an important function that cuts across primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of care. Surveillance is ‘Information for Action’.

The Covid-19 pandemic has provided us with an opportunity to revisit (re) emerging diseases due to increased interaction between human-animal-environment. Early identification of this interference is essential to break the chain of transmissions and create a resilient surveillance system. This vision document is a step in that direction, it articulates the vision and highlights the building blocks. It envisions a citizen-friendly public health system, which will involve stakeholders at all levels, be it individual, community, health care facilities or laboratories, all while protecting the individual’s privacy and confidentiality.’

The white paper lays out India’s vision 2035 for public health surveillance through the integration of the three-tiered public health system into Ayushman Bharat. It also spells out the need for expanded referral networks and enhanced laboratory capacity. The building blocks for this vision are an interdependent federated system of governance between the Centre and states, a new data-sharing mechanism that involves the use of new analytics, health informatics, and data science including innovative ways of disseminating ‘information for action’.

The paper released today is envisagedto serve as a vision document to propel public health surveillance in Indiaand establish India as a global leader in the area.

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“Held a meeting to review India’s planning on vaccine  and the way forward. Important issues related to progress of vaccine development, regulatory approvals and procurement were discussed,” PM Modi tweeted.

“Reviewed various issues like prioritisation of population groups, reaching out to HCWs, cold-chain Infrastructure augmentation, adding vaccinators and tech platform for vaccine roll-out,” he tweeted.

Several drug companies are involved in developing a vaccine to fight COVID-19, which has killed millions across nations since its outbreak in China in December last year.

Many are in advanced stages of trials and they have reported over 90 per cent effectiveness.

“Five vaccines are in advanced stages of development in India, out of which 4 are in Phase II/III and one is in Phase-I/II.  Countries such as Bangladesh, Myanmar, Qatar, Bhutan, Switzerland, Bahrain, Austria and South Korea – have shown keen interest in partnering for vaccine development of Indian vaccines and use thereof,” the government said in a statement .

Meanwhile  All schools under the jurisdiction of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai will remain shut till 31st December, 2020, in order to contain the spread of COVID-19. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Education Minister said local administration will have to take a call while reopening schools for students of class 9 to class 11, from 23rd November. After a reduction in the number of tests during Diwali, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has increased testing again. The corporation has also started 244 new testing centres, considering the possibility of a second wave of COVID-19.The state at present has nearly 80,000 active cases.

The Gujarat government has decided to impose a complete curfew in Ahmedabad during the weekend from 9 pm today. However, the night curfew will remain in force from Monday onwards until further orders. The decision has been taken to curb the rising number of Covid-19 cases in recent days. The weekend curfew will remain in force from 9 pm today to 6 am on Monday in Ahmedabad. While, 9 pm to 6 am curfew will continue from Monday onwards till further notice.The state government has also decided to postpone the reopening of schools and colleges from 23rd November. AIR correspondent reports that Ahmedabad city witnessed a spike in daily cases of infections after Diwali. There are nearly 12,700 active cases in the state at present.

In Rajasthan, 2,549 persons have been tested positive for COVID 19 during the last 24 hours. It is the highest number of infections reported in a single day so far. After the increase in Corona cases, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot interacted with representatives of private hospitals through video conference today. The number of active patients in the capital city of Jaipur has reached close to 7,000, while there are more than 20,100 active cases in the state. There is now a shortage of ICU beds in government and private hospitals. In view of the situation, the Chief Minister has urged private hospitals to increase the number of beds for COVID patients. After reports of COVID patients in Jodhpur not getting proper treatment, the State Human Rights Commission has constituted a high level committee under the chairmanship of the Divisional Commissioner, to inspect all private and government hospitals and submit a factual report.

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Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare said The Centre is also working on plans for building capacities in HR, training, supervision etc on a massive scale and roughly estimates to receive and utilise 400-500 million doses covering approximately 20-25 crore people by July 2021.

Dr Harsh Vardhan  responded to questions posed by his social media interactors on the fourth episode of Sunday Samvaad. The COVID Vaccine seems to have been a dominant theme in the mind of those who chose to submit questions for the episode. He also patiently explained related topics like the use of Plasma Therapy in COVID, the eradication of TB by 2025 in light of the COVID pandemic and the opening up of India’s schools.

On the questions of prioritising the distribution of vaccines, Dr. Harsh Vardhan answered that the Health Ministry is currently preparing a format in which States will submit lists of priority population groups to receive vaccine, especially health workers engaged in the management of COVID19. The list of frontline health workers will include both government as well as private sector doctors, nurses, paramedics, sanitary staff, ASHA workers, surveillance officers and many other occupational categories who are involved in tracing, testing and treatment of patients. This exercise is targeted to be completed by the end of this October and the States are being closely guided to also submit details about cold chain facilities and other related infrastructure which will be required down to the block level. The Centre is also working on plans for building capacities in HR, training, supervision etc on a massive scale and roughly estimates to receive and utilise 400-500 million doses covering approximately 20-25 crore people by July 2021. He further informed that the Government is also keeping an eye on immunity data with regard to COVID-19 disease while finalizing these plans.

He stated that there is a high level committee under the chairmanship of Niti Aayog Member (Health)  Shri VK Paul which is drawing up the entire process. Vaccine procurement is being done centrally and each consignment will be tracked real time until delivery to ensure it reaches those who need it most. He added that these Committees are working on understanding the timelines of availability of various vaccines in the country, obtaining commitments from vaccine manufacturers to make available maximum number of doses for India inventory & supply chain management and also on prioritisation of high-risk groups. This is work in progress which will be completed by the time the vaccines are ready to ensure the swift roll-out of the immunisation program.

Clearing glaring misconceptions that seem to have captured the imagination of rumour mongers in pockets of Punjab, Dr. Harsh Vardhan strongly rebutted allegations that the COVID-19 pandemic was a government conspiracy to enable organ harvesting of healthy individuals. He stated that the Government is not tied to fiscal considerations from financing agencies for implementation of the COVID-19 emergency response in light of the recent loan from the World Bank- Asian Infrastructural Investment Bank and the Asian Development Bank to the tune of Rs 15,000 Crores for managing COVID.

The Minister assured another respondent that there would be no diversion or black-marketing, “Vaccines will be distributed as per pre-decided priority and in a programmed manner. To ensure transparency and accountability, details of the entire process will be shared in the coming months.” He stressed the need to prioritize health care workers and adults or those have underlying health conditions.

Answering similar questions, he said that it is not possible to comment on the superiority of one vaccine over the other although he would ensure “that even if we have multiple vaccines available, they will all be safe and will elicit the requisite immune response against novel coronavirus”. He said that all vaccines that have proven to be safe, immunogenic and efficacious in clinical trials outside India need to undergo bridging studies to prove their safety and immunogenicity in the Indian population as well although these studies can be conducted with much smaller sample size and end quickly.

While tackling a question on the level playing field for various clinical trials, Dr Harsh Vardhan shared that all proposed clinical trials in India are designed using set principles and are stringently reviewed by the Subject Expert Committee set up by the Drug Controller General of India. Recently, the DCGI has also formulated draft guidelines on regulatory requirements for licensure of COVID-19 vaccines in India. On a question regarding Phase 3 Clinical Trial of Russia’s “Sputnik-V” vaccine in India, Dr Harsh Vardhan clarified that the matter is still under consideration, and no decision has been taken as yet on the Phase 3 trials.

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