Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : The number of novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) confirmed cases climbed to 6,412 in India including 1,364 in Maharashtra at 5 pm on April 10, 2020, while the death toll due to the disease increased to 206 in the country including 97 in Maharashtra, 17 in Gujarat, 16 in Madhya Pradesh, 12 in Delhi, 8 each in Punjab and Tamilnadu, 7 in Telangana, and 5 each in West Bengal and Karnataka. On the positive side, 515 patients have been cured/discharged. The number of active cases is 6,039 in the country.
The Government of India has announced sanction of Rs 15,000 crore for ‘India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package’. This fund can be used for treatment of COVID-19 patients and strengthen the medical infrastructure of the country with primary focus on COVID-19. This will boost the number of COVID-19 testing facilities and can be used to purchase Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Isolation beds, ICU beds, Ventilators, and other essential medical equipment and training of medical and paramedical manpower.
Thirtynine domestic manufacturers have been developed for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and Government of India has taken all required action to ensure adequate supply of PPEs to frontline workers across all States. Around 20.4 lakh N-95 masks have been supplied to the States and further procurement has already been initiated to address future requirements. Also, an order for 49,000 ventilators has been placed and stock is being taken for future requirements, according to a PIB release.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has also issued guidelines on blood transfusions and voluntary blood donation to ensure adequate stocks of blood and blood components, especially for those patients where blood transfusions is a life saving measure.
Additionally, against the projected requirement of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) of 1 crore tablets (including for Health Workers dealing with COVID-19 patients, ICU cases, and high risk contacts) the availability, as of now, is 3.28 crore tablets, which is 3 times more than required for domestic use in the country. In addition to this, about 2-3 crore more have been stocked up. Online training on Pregnancy and Labour Management has been taken up by AIIMS as part of their Webinars.
As of now, capacity of testing is up-scaled through 146 Government labs, 67 Private labs with more than 16,000 collection centres. On April 9, 2020, approximately 16,002 tests were taken up of which 320 were found to be positive (approximately 2%). This figure, however, varies on a day-to-day basis depending on the samples collected.
Union Health & Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on April 10, 2020, told the States ?UTs that there is a need to make dedicated COVID-19 hospitals in each district of the country and notify them as soon as possible so that people are informed about them.