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New Delhi : “As the number of cases and fatality rises in Delhi, it needs to ramp up testing coupled with aggressive surveillance, contact tracing and stringent containment and perimeter control activities,” stated by Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister, as he chaired a high-level meeting through video conferencing (VC) on June 4, 2020, to review the preparedness for prevention and control of COVID-19, here.
He was joined by Ashwini Kumar Choubey, MoS (HFW), Anil Baijal, Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, and Sh. Satyendra Jain, Health Minister of Delhi.
As all the districts of UT of Delhi are now affected by COVID-19, Dr Vardhan pointed out, “ The rising cases, high positivity rates and low testing levels in many districts are worrisome.” While the average testing/million population in Delhi was 2018, some districts such as north east (517 tests/million population) and South east (506 tests/million population) were far below. While the UT’s positivity rate of last week was 25.7%, several districts reported figures above 38%, he said. The high rate of infection in the health care workers was also serious issue, he added. It indicates poor infection prevention control practices in health care settings and needs to be attended to on priority, he pointed out.
Dr Vardhan underscored the immediate need and importance of scaling up of testing with health infrastructure enhancements along with better clinical management of the COVID-19 cases for effective case management and reduction of fatality rate. He also pointed that bed availability was to be rapidly increased in view of current rapid rise of cases along with avoiding unnecessary delay in admission of cases. “As a significant proportion are on home isolation, all efforts for timely response in terms of testing, triaging and shifting of patients to the required level of Dedicated COVID facility is important to avoid mortality,” he stated. The elderly and vulnerable population, such as those with underlying co-morbidities, need to be identified and protected, he said, adding that provisioning of institutional quarantine to vulnerable populations in large clusters where home isolation is not deemed effective, needs attention too.
It was advised that early detection of cases needs to be done by enhanced surveillance of ILI/ SARI cases. Fever Clinics and Flu corners in all Health care settings needs to be established in all corners of Delhi along with focus on contact tracing and surveillance. Use of Aarogya Setu app data for contact tracing was to be promoted. Also non-COVID essential health care services need to be resumed.
All support is being extended to Delhi for the strengthening of health infrastructure and augmentation of testing facilities, Dr Vardhan stated during the VC. After detailed discussion with the DMs, Commissioners and Mayors of Delhi, he said that while some issues such as the density of population in many containment zones did pose a serious challenge to the collective efforts of the administration, it was important to pool in resources and experiences for a convergent action, according to a PIB release.