States told to prepare action plan, convert hospitals into Covid facilities, ramp up testing, isolate, trace contacts
The Centre on Tuesday sounded the alarm over India’s Covid-19 situation which, it warned, is going from “bad to worse” and becoming a “huge cause of worry”. Stressing that the “whole country is at risk” and nobody should be complacent, the Union Health Ministry asked the States to prepare a district action plan, convert hospitals to dedicated Covid facilities yet again, ramp up testing with focus on RT-PCR, isolate promptly, trace contact, and boost healthcare resources.
India has recorded 56,211 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, which, in some relief, is 17 per cent lower than the day before, taking the total tally to 1,20,95,855 on Tuesday. Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh account for 80.17 per cent of the total active cases in India, whereas 19 States and UTs have higher coronavirus cases per million than the national average.
At a Press conference here on the Covid-19 situation in the country, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that 10 districts, with 8 in Maharashtra alone, have reported nearly 6 lakh cases in March. The 10 districts also include Delhi taken as a whole.
“The 10 districts with maximum active Covid-19 cases are Pune (59,475), Mumbai (46,248), Nagpur (45,322), Thane (35,264), Nashik (26,553), Aurangabad (21,282), Bengaluru Urban (16,259), Nanded (15,171), Delhi (8,032) and Ahmednagar (7,952).
Though technically speaking, Delhi has many districts, it has been taken as one district, said Bhushan who has also written to Chief Secretaries and Administrators of all States/UTs, highlighting specific district-level strategies with proactive and focused action to contain the cluster outbreaks of corona cases in some districts from overflowing into other regions.
NITI Aayog member (Health) VK Paul said, “Covid-19 situation is turning from bad to worse. In the last few weeks, especially in some States, it is a huge cause for worry. No State, no part of the country or district should be complacent.”
“We are facing an increasingly severe and intense situation, more so surely in some districts. But the whole country is potentially at risk and therefore all efforts to contain and save lives should be taken.
“Hospital and ICU preparations have to be readied. If the cases increase rapidly, the healthcare system would be overwhelmed,” Paul said.
About surge in case positivity rates, Bhushan said Maharashtra last week had an average positivity rate of 23 per cent, followed by Punjab 8.82 per cent, Chattisgarh 8.24 per cent, Madhya Pradesh 7.82 per cent, Tamil Nadu 2.5 per cent, Karnataka 2.45 per cent, Gujarat 2.22 per cent, and Delhi 2.04 per cent.
The average national positivity rate during last week was 5.65 per cent. All States and Union Territories are reporting a surge in cases and there is a need to significantly and exponentially increase the number of Covid-19 tests. The proportion of RT-PCR tests need to be increased too, Bhushan said.
In his letter to the States/UTs, the Health Secretary asked all districts to prepare a District Action Plan with clear timelines and responsibilities. “While RT-PCR test proportion must be more than 70 per cent as this impacts on positivity rate, an Emergency Operations Centre with a team to monitor the indicators, their growth, and spread 24×7 should be set up. The District Magistrate should review this twice a day and firm up a strategy for action.
Containment zones (CZ) in compliance with the SOPs issued by the Ministry should be dynamic and the district should take into account the evolving situation and clustering of cases and review on a daily basis. “All districts with high caseload and fast growth of cases must ensure 100 per cent saturation vaccination of the priority age group of 45 year and above, in the coming two weeks,” said the official in the letter.