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Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan thanked Saturday for the dedication of all northeastern states in fighting the coronavirus COVID-19 and added that they should all work together turning orange areas into green areas and maintaining the state of protection in all states.
Vardhan held a high-level meeting with Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim to review the status of COVID-19 in the Northeast states along with the measures being taken for its containment and management. .
He said: “It is a great relief and very encouraging to see green areas in most of the northeastern states. To date, only Assam and Tripura have active cases of COVID-19; the other states are all in the green zone. Let’s focus and work together by turning orange zones into green zones and maintaining protection status in all states. “
The review meeting, via videoconference, was also attended by the Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choube, together with the Minister of Health of Mizoram, Dr. R Lalthangliana, the Minister of Health of Arunachal Pradesh, Alo Libang, the Minister of Health of Assam, Piyush Hazarika, and other high officials of the eight states.
During the detailed interaction with the Northeast States, they highlighted various issues related to test facilities, health infrastructure, surveillance, contact tracking, etc., and also shared their best practices.
To maintain the positive state of COVID-19 management in the Northeast, Vardhan advised states to ensure that returning migrant workers, students, and returnees from abroad should be screened and quarantined according to the guidelines. and the protocol established by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He also stated that guidelines for discharging patients are also reviewed and should be followed by all States.
For states with international borders, Vardhan stated that these states must take appropriate measures in border areas to avoid exposure by conducting a screening of all persons entering the state at points of entry and following the quarantine protocol as per guidelines.
States were reminded that, in addition to COVID-19 care, non-COVID-19 health services were equally important and should not be neglected. Due attention should be given to health care services such as ANCs for pregnant women, immunization campaigns, OPD / IPD services, detection of NCDs, and diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis.
Adequate measures should also be taken for the prevention of vector-borne diseases. In addition, telemedicine and counseling facilities could be used to reach a larger population for their health care needs. States were also advised to ensure that payments, wages, and incentives were paid to health care personnel, paramedics, and other health workers, for which states were also advised to ensure that funds of the NHM were transferred to the Department of Health.
States were also informed that helpline number 104, in addition to 1075, can be used to repair claims for essential non-COVID services, and to provide necessary information to people in their location, etc. States were also advised to maintain adequate stocks of essential drugs and to explore home delivery by involving volunteers for this purpose.
In view of the increased prevalence of tobacco use by non-smokers in some of the states, Vardhan advised states to ensure that concrete steps are taken to ban their widespread use and to ban spitting in public places that will help prevent the spread from COVID. -19. Strong reforms are needed in this direction, he said. It appreciates the efforts of states that have banned the use of chewing tobacco and the imposition of a fine for spitting in public places.
Vardhan stated that, as of May 9, in the last 24 hours, 3,320 new confirmed cases were added and 1307 patients were found cured. He added that the mortality rate is 3.3 percent and the recovery rate is 29.9 percent. He also added that (May 8) there are 2.41 percent of patients with COVID-19 active in the ICU, 0.38 percent in ventilators and 1.88 percent in oxygen.
He also said: “The testing capacity has increased in the country and there are 95,000 tests per day with 332 government laboratories and 121 private laboratories. Cumulatively, 15,25,631 tests have been conducted so far for COVID-19. “Vardhan mentioned the various measures the Center has taken to combat COVID-19 so far.
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