COVID-19 spike: Union Health Secretary chairs high-level meet with 12 States, UTs

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Saturday chaired a highlevel review meeting with Additional Chief Secretaries Principal Secretaries and Secretaries of 12 states Municipal Commissioners and District Collectors of 46 districts most affected by rising cases and rising mortality because of Covid19The 12 states include Maharashtra Gujarat Haryana Tamil Nadu Chhattisgarh Madhya Pradesh West Bengal Delhi Jammu and Kashmir Karnataka Punjab and BiharDr VK Paul Member Health NITI Aayog was also present during the review meetingThrough a detailed presentation the states were informed that the country has seen the sharpest rise in weekly Covid cases and fatalities since May 2020 7737 and 5137 respectivelyThe focus was on 46 districts that have contributed 7137 of the cases and 6937 of deaths this month Of the total 36 districts in Maharashtra 25 are most affected that account for 59837 of cases reported in the country during the past one weekA granular analysis of affected districts in these States and UTs along with some key statistics was presentedAlmost 9037 of the Covid19 deaths continue to be in the category of those aged above 45 years Findings of studies were highlighted which depicted that while 9037 people are aware only 4437 actually wear face masksOne infected person could spread Covid19 to an average of 406 other individuals in a 30day window without restrictions which could be reduced to just 15 by decreasing physical exposure to 5037 and to a further 25 average by decreasing physical exposure to 7537It was also highlighted that the concept of second wave reflected more the laxity among everyone regarding Covidappropriate behaviour and Covid containment and management strategy at the ground levelHence stringent action including effective containment and contact tracing for at least 14 successive days in the 46 districts was strongly recommended for breaking the chain of transmission and not frittering away the gains of collaborative efforts of last yearA fivefold strategy was laid out for adoption by the States and UTs for effective containment and management of the Covid pandemic which includes exponential increase in testing effective isolation and contact tracing reinvigoration of public and private healthcare resources ensuring of Covidappropriate behaviour and targeted approach to vaccination in districts reporting large numbersStates were asked to focus on universalisation of vaccination in the specified priority population age groups as an aid to containment strategy in districts where maximum cases are being reportedIt was reiterated that there is no shortage of vaccines States must optimally utilise all vaccination capacities within the public and private sectors in all districts and make full use of the available vaccine stocks without keeping a buffer stock in anticipation of a shortageThe four depots at Chennai Mumbai Kolkata and Karnal have the requisite buffer stocks and all requirements of states based on their daily consumption and available stocks are being metStates were also asked to make advance planning of logistics and infrastructure management for 115 months as any unchecked spread of infection among the community may overwhelm the local administrationReappropriation of unused vaccine stocks in a district to focus on the high burden districts was also suggestedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever