Amid emerging coronavirus cases, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandavya held a review assembly and urged states to remain alert and prepare for COVID-19 management.
During the virtual assembly with the Ministers of Health and the Principal and Additional Secretaries of State, Mr. Mandaviya emphasized the identity of emergency hotspots by tracking trends in influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (AIRS) cases, intensifying testing and vaccination, and ensure the preparation of hospital infrastructure.
In addition to genome sequencing and accelerating total genome sequencing of positive samples, he has also focused on raising awareness about adherence to appropriate Covid behavior.
The Center and states will need to continue to work in a spirit of collaboration, as has been done in previous COVID-19 prevention and control periods, Mr. Mandaviya said.
He also suggested state fitness ministers conduct mock workouts of all hospital services on April 10 and 11 and discuss fitness readiness with district administrations and fitness officials on April 8 and 9.
States and Union Territories were further informed that WHO is recently intensively tracking one variant of interest (VOI), XBB. 1. 5 and six other variants are under surveillance (BQ. 1, BA. 2. 75, CH. 1. 1, XBB, XBF and XBB). 1. 16), says one from the Ministry of Health.
It was noted that Omicron and its sublineages remain the primary variant, most of the assigned variants having little or no significant transmissibility, disease severity or immune evasion. The prevalence of XBB. 1. 16 increased from 21. 6% in February to 35. 8% in March 2023.
However, no major hospitalizations or mortality have been reported, according to the statement.
During the meeting, it was noted that 23 states and union territories had average tests consistent with millions below the national average, according to a Department of Health report.
Mandaviya said that regardless of the new variants, the five-pronged strategy “Try-Follow-Treat-Vaccinate and adhere to appropriate Covid behavior” remains the test for Covid management.
This would cause appropriate public health measures to be taken, he said.
It was also suggested that states and Union territories increase the testing rate from the existing rate of one hundred million-equivalent tests, starting the week ending April 7. according to the statement.
States and Union territories were informed that the country has noted a steady accumulation in COVID-19 cases, with average daily cases rising to 4188 in the week ending April 7, up from 571 in the week ending March 17; and weekly positivity up to 3. 02% the week ending April 7.
However, an average of 88,503 cases were reported worldwide at the same time, with the five smartest countries contributing 62. 6% of global cases over the past week, according to the statement.
The Committee also reported that while India has achieved a policy of over 90% consistent with immunization number one, the precautionary dose policy is very low.
The Union Minister of Health has pleaded with states and union territories to increase vaccination of the entire eligible population, especially the elderly and population groups.
It has also been observed that 8 states are reporting a maximum number of Covid cases in India with 10 or more districts reporting over 10% positivity in Kerala, Maharashtra and Delhi and over five districts reporting over 5% positivity in Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Haryana.
Mr. Mandaviya stressed the importance of strengthening public awareness campaigns related to compliance with appropriate Covid behaviors. He told all fitness ministers to monitor and review the readiness of all logistics and infrastructure, adding the availability of enough designated hospital beds and to make sure there is a good enough inventory of essential medicines.
States were also asked to update their knowledge of Covid on the Covid India portal.
They were reminded of the joint statement issued by the Ministry of Health of the Union and the ICMR to all states on March 25 calling for a revitalized public health reaction to deal with the seasonal influenza outbreak and Covid cases through the early chopped onion, isolation and immediate control of suspected cases and shown to stumble upon and involve outbreaks of new SARS-CoV-2 variants.
Mr. Mandaviya called on the States and Territories of the Union to ensure effective implementation. There was a full and detailed discussion on the facets of COVID management, adding the increase in hospital infrastructure; Superior tests.
Pondicherry Chief Minister N Rangaswamy, the Ministers of Health of Uttarakhand (Dhan Singh Rawat), Assam (Keshab Mahanta), Goa (Vishwajit Rane), Jharkhand (Banna Gupta), Madhya Pradesh (Prabhuram Choudhury), Punjab (Balbir Singh), Manipur (Sapan Ranjan Singh), Haryana (Anil Vij), Tamil Nadu (Thiru Ma Subramanian) and Telangana (Thanneeru Harish Rao) attended the meeting.
(With the exception of the title, this story has not been edited through NDTV and is published from a syndicated feed. )
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