Increase in number of containment zones needs immediate attention: Dr Harsh Vardhan

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan said that prompt action must be taken to increase the number of COVID-19 containment zones in order to arrest the spread of the deadly virus. This comes after a few states reported a spike in the number of coronavirus cases.

New Delhi: Against the backdrop of a spike in COVID-19 cases from a few states, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan on Thursday said that an increase in the number of containment zones needs immediate attention.

“Vulnerability mapping of densely populated areas should be done for an effective containment strategy to be put in place. Also, rise in case fatality rate should be looked into along with tests done per million population,” said Dr Vardhan while chairing a high-level meeting with Rajesh Tope, Health Minister of Maharashtra, and state’s Medical Education Minister Amit Deshmukh.

DMs of COVID-19 affected districts of Maharashtra were also present in the meeting.

It may be mentioned here that all 36 districts in Maharastra are affected in the State. The meeting gave special attention to districts like Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nashik, Palghar, Nagpur and Aurangabad.

Dr SK Singh, Director, NCDC also made a presentation on COVID-19 status in Maharashtra highlighting the districts that were showing a higher number of active cases, case fatality rate, confirmation rate, doubling time and low testing rate.

Regarding the health infrastructure in the state, Dr Vardhan advised strengthening the system of ICU, ventilators and testing labs in Maharashtra and ensuring the availability of ICU and ventilators to all forthcoming patients.

He also told the State officials that the testing labs should ensure prompt delivery of reports of COVID-19 tests to help in the timely detection and management of COVID-19 patients. “We have ramped up our testing capacity through a network of 602 government labs and 235 private labs (total 837 labs). We have cumulatively tested 52,13,140 samples till date and 1,51,808 samples were tested in the last 24 hours,” he said.

Dr Vardhan informed that as on date, more than 136 lakh N95 masks and more than 106 lakh PPEs have been distributed to States and UTs and central institutions.

The State government has also been advised to ensure focus on essential RMNCHA+N services with special care for pregnant women along with services like blood collection, transfusion, chemotherapy, dialysis.

Referring to Covid19 vaccine, Dr Vardhan said that, “Many trials have started for medicine and vaccines for Covid-19. We will have to be vigilant until we have finally defeated Covid-19. We must adopt good practices of each other mutually for the eradication of COVID-19. All-District and Municipal government officials must work in cooperation with the State and the Centre.”

(IANS Report)