New Delhi: Even as the nationwide lockdown continued for second consecutive days, the Centre on Tuesday reiterated that states should be on high alert to face any possible large scale outbreak of Covid 19.
In a letter, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba has asked Chief Secretaries of all the states to enforce total lockdown. Admitting that there has been an increasing trend in Covid 19 cases, Gauba in the letter elaborated, "I would like to highlight that there has been an increasing trend in cases being reported. At this juncture we need to further enhance our efforts in respect of surveillance and contact tracing positive cases, in order to break the chain of transmission."
Gauba said, "It is absolutely essential that surveillance and contact tracing of all positive cases is taken up and no suspected or high risk person is left out."
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Gauba further asked the Chief Secretaries to augment hospitals dedicated for management of Covid 19 cases and ensure that they are in a state of full readiness to deal with the situation, in the event of a further spike in number of confirmed cases.
Later, Luv Agarwal, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that states like Assam, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and few others have already started working on site dedicated hospitals for Covid 19 patients.
"States have been asked to upgrade Health care facilities, personal protective equipments and ventilators." said Agarwal. He said that Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) as well as Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) have also been asked to provide ventilator's numbers.
"All decisions at the highest level of the government of India has been taken to fight against Covid 19," said Agarwal. Dr Raman Gangewkar, senior scientist at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said that at present 118 government laboratories are operational which can conduct more than 12,000 tests per day.
"We have given approval to 22 private labs chains to conduct Covid testing. And these labs are capable enough for the same," said Gangewkar. He said that talks are going on with 15 private kits manufacturers across India. Referring to the use of hydroxychloroquine, Gangewkar said that ICMR is doing survey on the use of hydroxychloroquine as an anti dote of Covid 19.
"Right now hydroxychloroquine is recommended as a preventive measure only for those who face a high risk of coronavirus infection. This is not suggested for people below 15 years of age and above 60 years," said Gangewkar.
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He further said that social distancing can reduce the threat of Covid 19 upto 62 percent. On the other hand ICMR has approved Pune based Mylab Discovery Solutions Pvt Ltd for producing testing kits of Covid 19. The organisation has developed indigenous Covid 19 testing kit which costs Rs 80,000 and it can tests upto 100 patients.
Meanwhile, a Home Ministry official has said that several state governments are taking action against people who are found involved in violating lockdown rules.
