Union Health Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday reviewed public health preparedness for management of COVID-19 with states in view of the recent upsurge in some states. Dr Mandaviya virtually interacted with State Health Ministers and Principal Secretaries from New Delhi. Speaking on the occasion, he said, Centre and States need to continue working in collaborative spirit as was done during the previous surges for COVID-19 prevention and management. The Minister advised them to be on the alert and keep all preparedness for COVID-19 management. He urged the State Health Ministers to conduct mock drills of all hospital infrastructure on 10th and 11th of this month and review the health preparedness with district administration and health officials. Dr Mandaviya also urged States to identify emerging hotspots by monitoring trends of Influenza-like illness cases and sending sufficient samples for testing of COVID-19 and Influenza. He also asked to ramp up whole genome sequencing of positive samples.
The Health Minister said that irrespective of the new COVID variants, the five-fold strategy of Test-Track-Treat-Vaccinate and Adherence to COVID Appropriate Behaviour should remain the tested strategy for COVID management. States and UTs were also requested to expeditiously increase the rate of testing from the current rate of 100 tests per million. They were advised to increase the share of RT-PCR in tests.
During the meeting, States and UTs were briefed that the country has been witnessing a steady increase in COVID-19 cases with average daily cases rising to four thousand 188 in the week. It was also informed that while India has achieved over 90 per cent coverage of primary vaccination, the coverage of precaution dose is very low. Dr Mandaviya advised States and UTs to ramp up vaccination of all eligible population, especially of the elderly and vulnerable population group.
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