People let their guard down: Health Minister Harsh Vardhan

Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday blamed the recent surge in cases on people not following Covid appropriate behaviour. Vardhan chaired a meeting with health ministers of 11 states and senior officials to review the Covid-19 situation and progress of vaccination. Health ministers of Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan attended the meeting.

The Union health minister said, “It seems that people have given ‘Tilanjali’ (sacrificed) to measures and steps that can protect them from Covid such as mask-wearing, avoiding gatherings and maintaining physical distancing, which I have been calling as social vaccine and are as important as the vaccines that we now have.” He urged the states to take up mass awareness campaigns to reinstill the importance of measures in the masses. “It is only with a Jan Andolan and Jan Bhagidari that we shall be able to overcome this phase of high rise in the cases in the country,” he stated. The health minister said people had started attending social gatherings including big weddings where nobody was wearing masks.

The Union health minister highlighted that these 11 states together contributed 54% of the total cases and 65% of the total deaths in the country, with a disproportionately high number of deaths in Maharashtra and Punjab. Vardhan noted that since February 2021, these states had witnessed a steep increase in cases, majority of which have been reported in the younger population of 15-44 years. Also, it was pointed out that majority of the deaths had been reported among the elderly of age more than 60 years.


Harsh Vardhan appreciated the increase in tests in the last four weeks but cautioned against the high RAT proportion in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. Another worrisome aspect pointed out was that the testing capacity of the private sector is underutilized in these states.