New Delhi: Rajesh Bhushan, Union Secretary Health & Family Welfare has advised Odisha Government to undertake intensive containment and active surveillance in clusters reporting higher cases.
Union Secretary also asked to define containment zones, based on mapping of cases and contacts traced and to undertake regular reviews and follow-up for implementation of ECRP-II with a focus on augmentation of existing health infrastructure particularly in rural areas and pediatric cases.
He has also advised to report death count as per ICMR guidelines.
Mr.Bhusan chaired a high-level meeting today to review the COVID-19 situation in 10 states of Odisha Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Andhra Pradesh and Manipur.
The public health measures taken for surveillance, containment and management of COVID19 by the health authorities in these states were also reviewed.
These States are either reporting a rise in new daily COVID cases or a rise in positivity.
Dr Balram Bhargava, DG ICMR and Secretary (DHR) was also present.
ACS Health & FW, Principal Secretary (Health), Mission Director (NHM), State Surveillance Officer of all these states participated in the review meeting.
All districts reporting positivity rate more than 10% in the last few weeks need to consider strict restrictions to prevent/curtail movement of people, formation of crowds and intermingling of people to prevent spread of infection. It was forcefully underlined that any laxity at this stage will result in deterioration of the situation in these districts.
More than 80% active cases in these states are reported to be in home isolation. There is need to effectively and strictly monitor these cases so that they are not intermingling and circulating in their neighborhoods, community, village, mohalla, ward etc., and spreading the infection.
The people in home isolation should be effectively monitored in such a manner to ensure that those who require hospitalization are seamlessly transferred for timely clinical treatment. Detailed SOPs covering various facets of effective clinical management of COVID19 patients in hospitals have been earlier shared with the States for prompt shifting and effective hospital management.
States also to focus on those districts where the positivity rate is less than 10%, so as to protect these districts and the populations by focusing on saturation of vaccination in these districts, advised he.
Union Health Ministry provides advance visibility on a fortnightly basis to enable the states to plan their vaccination schedules in an effective manner.
States were again informed that this quantum of vaccine doses indicates the minimum possible allocation by the Centre to the States; quantum more than this is usually delivered by the Union Health Ministry to States based on their consumption.
