New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday asked 13 districts from 8 states and Union Territory (UT) for optimal utilisation of resources to improve clinical management for COVID-19.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhusan conducted a two-day-long video conferencing with officials of selected 13 districts and discussed strategies to contain COVID-19 active cases and deaths.
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The official said that these districts including Kamrup Metropolitan in Assam, Patna in Bihar, Ranchi in Jharkhand, Alappuzha and Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, Gunjam in Odisha, Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, 24 Paraganas North, Hoogly, Howrah, Kolkata and Make an in West Bengal and Delhi account for nearly 9 per cent of India's active cases and about 14 per cent of COVID-19 deaths.
These states also report low tests per million and high confirmation percentage.
"A surge has been observed in the daily new cases in four districts including Kamrup Metropolitan, Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram and Alappuzha," officials said.
Principal secretary (health), MD (NHM) from eight states along with district surveillance officer, district collectors, municipal commissioners, chief medical officer were present in the meeting.
Several issues critical to reducing case fatality rate were discussed during the meeting. The states were advised to address the issue of low lab utilisation like less than 100 tests per day for RT PCR and 10 for others, low tests per million population, among others.
The states were advised to ensure timely referral and hospitalization following reports that patients dying within 48 hours of admission.
States were also directed to ensure availability of ambulance with zero tolerance for refusal. The need to ensure monitoring asymptomatic cases under home isolation with special focus on a physical visit and phone consultation was underscored.
The states and UTs were also suggested to ensure that the State Centre for Excellence and other hospitals participate in video conferencing with AIIMS to get guidance from a specialist team of doctors.
Meanwhile, India on Saturday registered 61,537 new COVID-19 cases taking the tally to 20,88,611. The total toll rises to 42,518 with 933 report3d in the last 24 hours.
Significantly, at a rate of 68.32 per cent, India's COVID-19 recovery number crossed 14.2 lakh with 48,900 patients recovered in the last 24 hours.
India also has the lowest cases per million in 1469 as against the global average of 2425.
India's case fatality rate has also reached a new low of 2.04 per cent. As many as 5,98,778 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours taking the total number to 2,33,87,171.
