<span style="color: #222222;">Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday reviewed the Public Health Response to COVID-19 and Progress of Vaccination with West Bengal and the 8 States of the North-East. These states are depicting a higher growth rate in the number of daily cases, high mortality and increasing positivity rate. During the meeting, Dr Vardhan stressed on the continued need to follow COVID Appropriate Behaviour along with renewed and stringent focus on containment measures for addressing the present surge. Highlighting the critical challenges faced by the North Eastern states and West Bengal, Dr Vardhan stressed on the need to strengthen testing facilities in peri-urban and rural areas. He also asked the states to focus on increasing testing in a timely manner along with upgrading the health infrastructure.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Underscoring the critical importance of vaccination drive, the Minister highlighted that India has achieved another landmark by crossing 18 crore doses recently. He also pointed out that, more than one crore doses are still in stock with the state governments. He added that between August to December 2021, India would have procured 216 crore vaccine doses and in  July, 51 crore doses will be procured. The Health Minister also urged states to ensure that the healthcare workers and frontline workers. He also informed  that by the end of the year, the country will be in a position to vaccinate at least all of its adult population.</span><br />''  <br />