Covid-19 Spike: Centre Asks States To Ramp Up Testing, Vaccination And Ensure Readiness Of Hospital Infra

Amid a spike in the Covid-19 cases in the recent days, the Centre has asked states to be on the alert and keep all preparedness for pandemic management.

In a review meeting with state health ministers and other officials, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya 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 virtual meeting was held to review the public health preparedness for containment and management of COVID-19 and progress of national COVID-19 vaccination campaign in view of the recent upsurge in cases in some states.

India has been witnessing a steady increase in COVID-19 cases with daily new cases rising by 6,050 on Friday, with active caseload standing at 28,303, the Health Ministry said in a release.

Mandaviya urged the state health ministers to conduct mock drills of all hospital infrastructure on 10 and 11 April and review the health preparedness with district administrations and health officials on 8 and 9 April.

He also urged states to identify emerging hotspots by monitoring trends of ILI/SARI cases and sending sufficient samples for testing of COVID-19 and Influenza, and ramping up whole genome sequencing of positive samples.

Mandaviya said that irrespective of the new COVID variants, the five-fold strategy of ‘Test-Track-Treat-Vaccinate and Adherence to COVID Appropriate Behaviour’ continue to remain the tested strategy for COVID management. 

This would facilitate undertaking of appropriate public health measures, he said. 

States/UTs were also requested to expeditiously increase the rate of testing from the current rate of 100 tests per million, as on week ending 7 April, the ministry said.

They were further advised to increase the share of RT-PCR in tests, it added.