Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : “The fight against Covid is a joint effort and joint responsibility of the Centre and States, and I am happy that we have faced this public health challenge in a collaborative spirit,” said Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya on January 29, 2022, while virtually interacting with Health Ministers and Principal Secretaries/ Additional Chief Secretaries and Information Commissioners of five eastern States of Odisha, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and West Bengal.
The virtual meeting was held in the presence of Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar, Union Minister of State for Health, to review the public health preparedness for containment and management of Covid-19 and progress of national Covid-19 vaccination campaign. Dr. V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog was also present.
State Health Ministers who joined the high level review meeting included Banna Gupta (Jharkhand), T S Singh Deo (Chhattisgarh), and Mangal Pandey (Bihar).The State Health Ministers unanimously thanked the Union Health Minister for the continued support from Government of India for management of the pandemic.
Dr Mandaviya said that irrespective of the Covid variants, ‘Test-Track-Treat-Vaccinate & Adherence to Covid Appropriate Behaviour’ continue to remain the tested strategy for Covid management. “ While the active cases in most of the states and the positivity rate have shown a fall in the last two week, we still need to be Satark (vigilant) and not lower our guard,” he stated. He urged the states to monitor the case positivity rate on a daily basis and increase RT-PCR testing rates as most of the states exhibited lower share of tests. States were advised to keep a close watch on the number of hospitalisations and deaths. “It is important to analyse at the state level the proportion of vaccinated and unvaccinated of the hospitalised cases, the deaths, and those on ventilators and oxygen support,”Mandaviya said.
The Union Health Minister reiterated his advice to all states to fully and effectively utilise the ECRP-II funds for strengthening the existing healthcare infrastructure and create new as per requirement. As the located funds under ECRP-II shall lapse on March 31, 2022, States were requested to review the progress on a regular basis, as this healthcare infrastructure will not only be utilised during the present pandemic, but will serve the people in the future too. He reminded them to complete installation and commissioning of the PSA plants, LMO storage tanks, and MGPS expeditiously, according to a PIB release.
Highlighting vaccination as a critical tool for pandemic management, Dr Mandaviya advised the States to accelerate vaccination of all eligible population, especially of the 15-17 age group and those whose second dose is due.
Highlighting the importance of tele-consultation through platforms such as eSanjeevani, Dr. Mandaviya suggested to establish tele-consultation hubs in every district hospital and ramp up creation of spokes at all AB-HWCs at the earliest as it will help the masses and enable healthcare access to the remote areas of the country.
States shared their best practices at the review meeting. Jharkhand informed about collecting data of migrant workers for vaccination. Chhattisgarh mentioned that a proper analysis of vaccinated and non-vaccinated people who tested positive is being made, while Bihar highlighted its initiative of doorstep delivery of medicine to Covid positive patients in home isolation through Speed Post.
Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary, Dr Balram Bhargava, DG, ICMR, Dr Manohar Agnani, AS (Health Ministry), Dr Randeep Guleria, Director, AIIMS New Delhi, Lav Agarwal, JS (Health Ministry), Dr. Sujeet Kumar Singh, Director (NCDC), and senior officials from the state were present during the meeting.