New Delhi
The Home Ministry has asked states and UTs to conduct a detailed review of fire safety mechanisms at hospitals and nursing homes, a move that follows several instances of fires at healthcare facilities across India, a spokesperson said on Wednesday.
Taking note of incidents at a time the healthcare system is battling the pandemic, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla has written to state chief secretaries and UT administrators to draw their attention to the fires caused by short-circuits in hospitals and nursing homes. Over a dozen fire incidents, claiming several lives, have been reported in the last two months, particularly from Maharashtra and Gujarat.
The recent fire incidents indicate lack of maintenance or a high load on internal wirings within the facilities, leading to short-circuits and loss of life and damage to essential infrastructure, the Home secretary said.
Bhalla said care should be taken to put in place a plan of action to ensure no fire incident occurs in any health facility (particularly COVID-19 dedicated facilities) both in the government and the private sector.
“The states and UTs have been requested to conduct a detailed review with officials from the Health, Power and Fire Deptts, and prepare a detailed plan of action to ensure that fire safety measures are in place in all hospitals and health facilities,” a Home ministry spokesperson said, quoting from the letter.
States have 94L vax doses: Govt
More than 94.47 lakh Covid-19 vaccine doses are still available with the states and UTs which will receive over 36 lakh fresh doses in the next 3 days, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
The Government has so far provided nearly 17.02 crore vaccine doses to states and UTs free of cost. Of these, the total consumption including wastages is 16.07 crore doses, according to data available at 8 am.
16 crore doses administered
New Delhi: The cumulative number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 16 crore, with India reaching the mark in 109 days, the Union Health Ministry said. In comparison, the US took 111 days while China took 116 days to achieve a similar mark, it said.
It said 6,71,285 beneficiaries aged 18-44 have received their first dose of vaccine across 12 states and UTs. These are Chhattisgarh (1,026), Delhi (82,000), Gujarat (1,61,625), J&K (10,885), Haryana (99,680), Karnataka (3,840), Maharashtra (1,11,621), Odisha (13,768), Punjab (908), Rajasthan (1,30,071), Tamil Nadu (4,577) and UP (51,284). Cumulatively, 16,04,94,188 vaccine doses have been administered through 23,66,349 sessions, according to the provisional report till 7 am.
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