New Delhi, September 6
The Center has asked 5 states and a UT from where 35 districts have been reporting a high number of active COVID-19 cases and a death rate to strengthen containment measures and increase testing to reduce the positivity rate below five percent.
These 35 districts comprise the 11 districts of Delhi, Kolkata, Howrah, North 24 Parganas and 24 South Parganas in West Bengal; Pune, Nagpur, Thane, Mumbai, Suburban Mumbai, Kolhapur, Sangli, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Raigad, Jalgaon, Solapur, Satara, Palghar, Aurangabad, Dhule and Nanded in Maharashtra; Surat in Gujarat; Pondicherry in Puducherry and East Singhbhum in Jharkhand.
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At a review meeting held on Saturday, they were asked to ensure tight perimeter control, strengthen active case finding by targeting the elderly and comorbid population, early identification through increased testing, and optional capacity utilization. RT-PCR test to break the chain of disease transmission, the Health Ministry said on Sunday.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan held the review meeting via video conference (CV) with health secretaries from five states and a UT on the containment and management of COVID-19 in 35 districts under his jurisdiction.
District collectors and other officials were advised to prepare and update specific district plans to continue their efforts to manage the pandemic.
States were also recommended to effectively monitor cases of home isolation and early hospitalization in the event of disease progression, uninterrupted hospitalization and early admission of patients requiring medical support, especially in cases of comorbid population and elderly woman, in addition to following effective infection control measures in hospitals to protect healthcare workers from contracting the infection.
The Union Ministry of Health has been proactively monitoring the trajectory of the COVID pandemic and has been undertaking impactful interactions with state and UT authorities to guide the management of districts exhibiting an increase in COVID cases and that have a high number of active cases and a mortality rate to improve their management. the crisis, the ministry said.
In addition to the state health secretaries, district collectors, municipal commissioners and other officials from the affected districts also participated in the digital meeting.
The State Health Secretaries presented a detailed analysis of the current status of COVID-19 in these districts.
They covered the aspects of containment measures, contact tracing, surveillance activities, fatality rates at the facilities, trends in terms of new cases and weekly deaths, etc., the ministry said.
They also discussed the detailed roadmaps and action plan for the next month, he said. Details in terms of division of RT-PCR and rapid antigen tests performed in the district, reexamination of the percentage of symptomatic negatives of antigen tests, use of the testing laboratory, hospitalization status and occupancy of beds of oxygen beds, beds ICU and ventilator, etc. , were also shared with the Center.
India’s COVID-19 case count increased to 41,13,811 with a record 90,632 people infected in one day, while the death toll rose to 70,626 with the novel coronavirus taking 1,065 lives in a span of 24 hours in the country, data updated at 8 am – PTI
