'Our aim is to reduce and keep case mortality low': Dr Harsh Vardhan

While chairing the 18th meeting of the high-level Group of Ministers on Covid-19, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan informed that among the five most affected countries India has one of the lowest cases per million (538) and deaths per million (15) compared the global average of 1453 and 68.7, respectively. The GoM was briefed on the current status of COVID-19 in India.

New Delhi:Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, who chaired the 18th meeting of the high-level Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 here on Thursday said that India's aim is to reduce and keep the case mortality of Covid-19 low by early identification and effective clinical management.

The 18th GoM was attended by Foreign Minister Dr S Jayashankar, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Chaubey and senior officials of concerned ministers.

"As we move forward, our focus shall be on the management of COVID-19 through strict containment measures and surveillance, utilising full testing capacity, focus on monitoring of the comorbid and elderly population, predicting emerging hotspots, leveraging digital tools such as Aarogya Setu, ensuring seamless patient admission process, and focus on infrastructure preparedness," said Dr Vardhan.

It was informed in the meeting that the global comparison among the five most affected countries clearly depicts that India has one of the lowest cases per million (538) and deaths per million (15) as compared to the global average of 1453 and 68.7.

Eight states, including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Karnataka and Telangana, account for around 90 per cent of the active COVID-19 cases in the country and 80 per cent of the active cases have been reported from 49 districts, the GoM on COVID-19 was informed on Thursday.

Besides, the GoM was told that six states -- Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal -- account for 86 per cent of the deaths caused by COVID-19 and 32 districts account for 80 per cent of such fatalities, the Union health ministry said.

It was told in the GoM meeting that there are 3,77,737 isolation beds (without ICU support), 39820 ICU beds and 142415 oxygen supported beds along with 20047 ventilators. In terms of healthcare logistics, 213.55 lakh N95 mask, 120.94 PPEs and 612.57 lakh HCQ tablets have been distributed.

Director of National Centre for Disease Control, Dr Surjit K Singh said that the focus was on street containment strategy and surveillance through SARI and ILI cases, serological survey and increase in lab network to widen countrywide testing.

The major concern areas in the country were highlighted and the measures to be taken were listed including timely clinical management along with testing and surveillance in the high-risk population with comorbidities to reduce the case fatality ratio.

Amit Khare, chairman of Empowered Group 8 (on information, communication and public awareness) informed in the meeting that the group received 6755 alerts of fake news out of which 5890 relied directly on rebuttals and were published to 17 foreign media stories.