Centre decides to launch COVID-19 awareness campaign from today

The Union Cabinet on Thursday decided to launch the COVID-19 public awareness campaign amid public indifference towards wearing masks and avoid mass gatherings.

"Masks, social distancing, and washing hands are the three ways to remain safe, in the absence of any vaccine. We have decided to launch a public campaign to raise awareness about these measures in public places,"  Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said to the media.

The campaign will be focused on places that are supposed to have a high density of people like airports, railway stations, bus depots, police stations, markets, among other places. Javdekar also said that a social media campaign will be started simultaneously to make people aware.

Javadekar said India has so far been able to keep the COVID-19 casualty count low and recoveries high. The campaign is intended to keep it that way. The cabinet`s decision comes in the wake of the growing indifference of people to wear masks or maintain social distancing.

With a fresh spike of 72,049 Coronavirus cases and 986 deaths in 24 hours, India`s tally on Wednesday went past the 67-lakh-mark with a total of 67,57,131 cases. Out of these, 9,07,883 are currently active; 57,44,693 have been discharged, while 1,04,555 have lost the battle against the pandemic.

The recovery rate stands at 85.02 percent and the fatality rate at 1.55 percent, data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

(With IANS inputs)