Avoid Covid related deaths at any cost: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged top officers to avoid Covid related deaths at any cost by ensuring timely hospitalisation, enough beds in hospitals, supply of oxygen and ventilators to save lives. He asked them to ensure strict compliance of clinical protocols both in hospitals and for home-care patients, said officials in the Prime Minister’s Office, writes ETV Bharat Deputy News Editor Krishnanand Tripathi.

New Delhi: In a high-level meeting with the top Central government and Niti Aayog officers, Prime Minister Modi asked them to follow five-fold strategy of testing, tracing, treatment, covid-appropriate behaviour and vaccination in public movement mode to curb the second wave of the Coronavirus infections in the country.

The Prime Minister also asked to launch a special week-long campaign from Tuesday (April 6 to April 14) to create awareness about Covid appropriate behaviour and ensure sanitisation of public places.

On March 1, India reported 11,563 new cases and the average new cases in the month of February were in the range of 10,000-11,000 per day and the average daily deaths were also below 100.

However, at the start of this month, the daily caseload on Saturday neared the mark of 93,000 cases in a day and daily deaths touched a yearly high of over 713 deaths on April 2, according to the worldometers.

It happened at a time when India has just started vaccinating people above the age of 45 from early this month. According to official data, patients above the age of 45 accounted for nearly 88% of deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country.

The deadly SarS-CoV-2 virus has so far killed 1,64,600 people in the country and over 2.8 million people worldwide.

Focus on Maharashtra, Punjab, Chhattisgarh

The Prime Minister directed that central teams consisting of public health specialists and clinicians be sent to Maharashtra in view of high case load and deaths, and likewise to Punjab and Chhattisgarh because of the disproportionate number of deaths being reported there, said officials.

In order to control the recent surge witnessed this month, the Prime Minister emphasised the need to ensure effective implementation of containment measures, besides the involvement of community volunteers in active case search and management of containment zones.

“He exhorted that all states need to take required stringent measures with comprehensive restrictions in places witnessing high surge to curb the spread,” said officials.

10 States report more than 90% deaths

In the high-level meeting, a detailed presentation was made which highlighted that there was an alarming rate of growth of Covid-19 cases and deaths in the country with 10 states contributing to more than 91% of cases and deaths due to COVID.

According to the data shared by the officials, as on date, Maharashtra contributed 57% of total cases in the country in the last 14 days and 47% of deaths in the country during the same period.

In Maharashtra, the total number of new cases per day has touched 47,913 which is more than double its earlier peak.

In case of Punjab, what is disconcerting is that though the State has reported 4.5% of the total number of cases in the country in last 14 days but it accounted for more than 16.3% of total Covid deaths during this period.

Similarly, though Chhattisgarh has contributed 4.3% of total cases in the country over the last 14 days, its contribution in total death has exceeded 7% during the same period.

The 10 high burden States and UTs are contributing 91.4% of total cases and 90.9% of total deaths in the country.

According to officials, it was emphasized in the meeting that the reasons for the sharper rise in cases were attributed to an alarming laxity in following the Covid-appropriate behaviour, primarily in terms of use of masks and maintaining social distance which was primarily to the pandemic fatigue and lack of effective implementation of containment measures at the field level.

Variants of Concerns (VoCs)

Quoting the discussion in the meeting, officials said the exact contribution of mutant strains to the escalation of cases in some States remains speculative.

Vaccination

In the meeting, the Prime Minister also discussed the issue of research and development of vaccines along with the production capacity of existing manufacturers and the capacity of vaccines that are under trials.

It was informed that vaccine manufacturers are ramping up their production capacity and are also in discussion with other domestic and offshore companies to augment the vaccine production, said officials.

Officials said all efforts are made to provide enough vaccines to meet the rising domestic requirements as well as to meet the genuine needs of other countries in the spirit of ‘Vasudhaiv Kutumbkam’.

The Prime Minister urged that a mission-mode approach in the states and districts reporting high cases should be followed so that the gains made in the last 15 months are not wasted.

The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Modi’s Principal Secretary, Cabinet Secretary, Home Secretary, Chairperson (Empowered group on Vaccine Administration), Secretary Health, Secretary Pharmaceuticals, Secretary Biotechnology, Secretary AYUSH, DG ICMR, Principal Scientific Advisor to Govt of India and Member NITI Aayog and other senior officials.