Centre reviews Covid preparedness; asks states, UTs to remain alert
New Delhi, Apr 7 : Amid the spike in the of Covid-19 cases across the country, the centre has asked the states and Union Territories to be vigil and keep all preparedness for COVID19 management.
The direction came from Union Health Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, at a virtual meeting with State Health Ministers and Principal Secretaries/ Additional Chief Secretaries, here on Friday.
“Centre and States need to continue working in collaborative spirit as was done during the previous surges for COVID-19 prevention and management”, a release quoted Mandaviya as saying during the meeting.
The virtual meeting was held in the presence of Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar, Union Minister of State for Health to review the public health preparedness for containment and management of COVID-19 and progress of national COVID-19 vaccination campaign in view of the recent upsurge in cases in some states.
He also urged the State Health Ministers to conduct mock drills of all hospital infrastructure on 10th and 11th April, 2023 and review the health preparedness with district administrations and health officials on 8th and 9th April, 2023.
The Minister also urged States to identify emerging hotspots by monitoring trends of ILI/SARI cases and sending sufficient samples for testing of COVID-19 and Influenza; and ramping up whole genome sequencing of positive samples.
“Irrespective of the new COVID variants, the five-fold strategy of ‘Test-Track-Treat-Vaccinate & Adherence to COVID Appropriate Behaviour’ continue to remain the tested strategy for COVID management” he said.
They were also further advised to increase the share of RT-PCR in tests.
States/UTs were briefed that India has been witnessing a steady increase in COVID-19 cases with average daily cases rising to 4,188 in the week ending 07th April 2023 from 571 in the week ending 17th March 2023.
The weekly positivity up to 3.02% in the week ending 07th April, 2023. However, 88,503 daily average cases have been reported globally in the same time, with the top five countries contributing 62.6% of global cases in the last one week.
The prevalence of XBB.1.16 increased from 21.6% in Feb to 35.8% in March, 2023. However, no evidence of an increase in hospitalization or mortality has been reported.
It was also observed that eight states are reporting high number of Covid cases in India with 10 or more districts reporting more than 10% positivity in Kerala, Maharashtra and Delhi and over 5 districts reporting more than 5% positivity in the states of Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Haryana.
Dr Mandaviya stressed on the importance of enhancing public awareness campaigns regarding adherence to Covid Appropriate Behaviour.
He requested all the State Health Ministers to personally monitor and review the preparedness of all logistics and infrastructure including availability of sufficient designated hospital beds and ensure that there is adequate stock of essential medicines.
States were also asked to regularly update their COVID data on the COVID India Portal.
Meanwhile, India has reported another jump as the country logged 6,050 Covid cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total active case at 28,303, as per the Union Health Ministry data on Friday.