EC reviews Covid-19 surge in poll-bound states with Health Secy, chiefs of ICMR, AIIMS

The Election Commission on Thursday reviewed the Covid-19 surge in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur and Punjab, even as it completed preparation to announce the schedule of the assembly polls in the five states – notwithstanding the onset of the third wave of the pandemic in the country.

Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and the two Election Commissioners, Rajiv Kumar and Anup Chandra Pandey, had a meeting with the Union Health Secretary, Rajesh Bhushan, and the Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research, Dr Balram Bhargava, to review the Covid-19 surge in the five poll-bound states as well as the containment measures put in place.

Dr Randeep Guleria, the director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi, was also present in the meeting, which took place at the Nirvachan Sadan, the headquarters of the EC in New Delhi.

The EC also reviewed the law and order situation in the five states in a separate meeting with Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla.

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The commission is likely to announce the schedule of the assembly polls in the five states soon. The polling is likely to take place in February and March. The Model Code of Conduct will come into effect with the announcement of the schedule of the assembly elections.

A source told DH that the Health Secretary had briefed the CEC and the two other ECs about the rate of SARS-CoV-2 infection and pace of anti-Covid-19 vaccination in the five states.

Chandra, Kumar and Pandey also discussed with Dr Guleria and Dr Bhargava the special measures, which should be adopted in addition to its own August 2020 guidelines for holding polls during the pandemic.

Uttar Pradesh, the largest of the poll-bound states, at present has 5,158 active Covid-19 cases, with as many as 1,985 people being tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 infection in the past 24 hours. Punjab and Uttarakhand reported 1,748 and 346 new Covid-19 cases respectively in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of active cases to 4,434 and 1,000 in the two states respectively.

Goa and Manipur now have 3,718 and 268 active cases respectively, with 955 and 11 people being tested positive in the past 24 hours, according to the data the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released and shared with the EC on Thursday.

Uttar Pradesh so far confirmed 31 Covid-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2, while six of them have already recovered. Manipur and Punjab reported one and two cases of infection by Omicron respectively, but all of them have already recovered. Five of the eight Omicron-infected people in Uttarakhand recovered. Goa reported five cases of infection by Omicron, but four of them have recovered so far, according to the MoHFW data.

Goa and Uttarakhand reported anti-Covid-19 vaccination coverage for the first and second doses higher than the national average. But Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Manipur reported vaccination coverage below the national average.

The source said that the CEC had asked the Union Health Secretary to speed up vaccination campaigns in all the five states so that all eligible people could be inoculated with both doses of the Covid-19 jabs at the earliest. The EC also stressed on vaccination of the poll personnel, who would be deployed to conduct the elections.

Altogether 7.61 crore adults in Uttar Pradesh were fully vaccinated till 7:00 am on Thursday. Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa fully vaccinated 95.69 lakh, 64.95 and 11.15 lakh adults of the populations in the states respectively. Manipur reported inoculation of 9.99 lakh adult people with the first and second doses of the vaccines.

The CEC and the two ECs stressed during the meetings with the Health Secretary that the Centre should coordinate with the governments of the five poll-bound states to ensure that adequate measures are put in place to contain the surge in the Covid-19 cases.

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