Keep all preparedness for Covid-19 management, Centre to states

New Delhi | Alarmed by the resurgence of Covid-19, Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday chaired a meeting of health ministers of all states and Union Territories and advised them to keep all preparedness for Covid management.

Continuing the rising trend, Covid cases crossed 6k-mark this morning, the Union Health Ministry data showed.

“The 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 said as he chaired the meeting virtually.

He urged the State Health Ministers to conduct mock drills of all hospital infrastructure on April 10 and 11, and review the health preparedness with district administrations and health officials on April 8 and 9.

Minister Mandaviya also urged the 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.

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It was observed that 23 states/UTs had average tests per million below the national average.

Mandaviya said that irrespective of the new variants, the five-fold strategy of "Test-Track-Treat-Vaccinate & Adherence to Covid Appropriate Behaviour" continues to remain the tested strategy.

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

The states/UTs were also requested to expeditiously increase the rate of testing from the current rate of 100 tests per million, as on the week ending April 7. They were further advised to increase the share of RT-PCR in tests.

India has been witnessing a steady increase in Covid cases with average daily cases rising to 4,188 in the week ending April 7 from 571 in the week ending March 17; and weekly positivity rate up to 3.02 per cent in the week ending April 7.

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