Former PM Manmohan Singh Tested Positive for COVID-19

New Delhi- Former Prime Minister of India and Congress leader Dr. Manmohan Singh on Monday tested positive for the novel coronavirus and has been admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). 

The doctors said that his symptoms are mild and he is in a stable condition. However, he was hospitalized because of old age and comorbidities. 

The 88-year-old Congress veteran had on Sunday written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggesting to him five ways in which the government can combat the pandemic and help contain the cases of coronavirus which is skyrocketing and spiraling out of control. 

Singh, in the letter, highlighted a relevant point of vaccination drive by recommending a growth of COVID vaccination program further as it a big part of the pandemic management. He wrote, "We must resist the temptation to look at absolute numbers vaccinated and instead focus on the percentage of population vaccinated."

The points recommended by former PM Manmohan Singh, in a brief, is that the centre should publicize vaccine dose orders placed and accepted for delivery over the next six months. A transparent formula, indicating how vaccine supplies are to be distributed to states should be released by the government. The centre should give the states flexibility to define categories of frontline workers who can be vaccinated. Government must actively support vaccine producers to expand manufacturing facilities and should also invoke compulsory licensing provisions to allow more companies to produce vaccines. Lastly, vaccines approved by credible foreign regulators, without insisting on domestic bridging trials should be allowed to be imported by the government. 

Meanwhile, India reported 2,73,810 fresh new Covid-19 cases, making it the fifth straight day that India has recorded more than 2 lakh Covid cases in 24 hours. The highest one-day surge took the total tally of caseload to 1.5 crore mark. There have been 1,619 cases of fatalities reported in the last 24 hours in a new record high taking the total caseload past the 1.5 crore mark. This is the sixth consecutive day that India reported over a thousand daily deaths.

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