Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : In line with the graded, pre-emptive and pro-active approach of Government of India, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on April 17, 2021, chaired a high-level review meeting with the Health Ministers of 11 States/UTs to review measures taken by them for prevention, containment, and management of the recent surge in COVID-19 cases. The meeting lasted for more than three hours. These States/UT : Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, West Bengal, Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh are reporting an unprecedented surge in new COVID cases.
Dr Vardhan presented a snapshot of the unprecedented rise in new cases at the outset. He noted that India reported its highest single day spike on April 12, 2021, which was also the highest number of daily new cases reported in the world. India contributed 22.8% of the total cases reported worldwide on April 12, 2021. He said, “India is currently reporting the sharpest growth rate of 7.6% in new COVID cases, which is 1.3 times higher than case growth rate of 5.5% reported in June 2020. This is leading to an alarming rise in daily number of Active Cases. There is also a sharp growth of 10.2% in the number of deaths. The widening gap between Daily New Cases and Daily New Recoveries reflects that the infection is spreading at a much faster rate than recoveries with consistently growing active cases.” All the 11 States/UTshave already crossed their highest reported daily case threshold with some districts like Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Nashik, Thane, Lucknow, Raipur, Ahmedabad, and Aurangabad also following the same pattern, according to a PIB release.
Dr Vardhan also detailed the corresponding rise in Health Infrastructure to cope with the crisis: “From just 1 lab at the start of the Pandemic, we now have 2,463 labs that have a combined daily testing capacity of 15 lakh. The three-tier health infrastructure to treat COVID according to severity now includes 2,084 Dedicated COVID Hospitals (of which 89 are under the Centre and the rest 1,995 with States), 4,043 Dedicated COVID Health Centres and 12,673 COVID Care Centres. They have 18,52,265 beds in total including the 4,68,974 beds in the Dedicated COVID Hospitals.”
Reminding the Health Ministers that 34,228 ventilators were granted to the States by the Centre last year, Dr Vardhan assured a fresh supply of the lifesaving machines: 1,121 ventilators are to be given to Maharashtra, 1,700 to Uttar Pradesh, 1,500 to Jharkhand, 1,600 to Gujarat, 152 to Madhya Pradesh, and 230 to Chhattisgarh.
Dr Vardhan also addressed the perceived issue of vaccine shortage. The Total Consumption of vaccines so far (wastage included) has been approximately 12 crore 57 lakh 18 thousand doses against the 14 crore 15 lakh doses provided by the Centre to the States. About 1 crore 58 lakh doses are still available with the States while another 1 crore and 16 lakh 84 thousand are in pipeline, to be delivered by next week. “Stocks of every small state are replenished after 7 days. For big states, the time period is 4 days,” he added. Emphasising that there is no shortage of vaccine, he strongly pushed for the further ramping up of vaccination exercise.
The State Health Ministers shared a brief snapshot of the action taken for containment, surveillance, and treatment of the COVID positive cases along with best practices of their States. The issues of augmenting supply of oxygen cylinders; stepping up supply of Remdesivir to hospitals; adding to the ventilator stock; and enhanced supply of vaccine doses were raised by almost all the States and UTs. Many of them raised the issue of dovetailing the Medical Oxygen supply lines and the capping of prices of essential drugs like Remdesivir which has been sold in the black market at exorbitant prices. Double mutant strain in Maharashtra was a key point of concern. The Delhi government requested for additional beds in central government hospitals as was done in 2020 to help tide over the emergent health crisis.
The notification of Home Ministry granting permission to the States to utilise up to 50% of their annual allocation of State Disaster Response Fund and that of the Union Health Ministry allowing for utilisation of unspent pending balance under National Health Mission as on April 1, 2021, for COVID management purposes was re-iterated.
Taking note of the active surge in cases witnessed since last February in which most states have now crossed their highest tally, Dr Vardhan exhorted the States to plan in advance and increase COVID hospitals, oxygenated beds, and other relevant infrastructure to deal with any further surge in cases. He requested the States to give special focus on the prominent 5-6 cities in their administration, map medical colleges to either these cities or adjoining 2-3 districts. The States were asked to seek out positive cases with the onset of early symptoms so that prompt and effective treatment checks the deterioration of health in the diseased. Large containment zones for achieving community quarantine were also suggested as a strategy. The Union Minister reminded the States to send the clinical and epidemiological pictures to assess genomic mutants of the pathogen to the coordinating INSACOG nodal officer and attempt to correlate the public health scenario with the clinical picture.