Centre lauds Haryana’s coronavirus response: Anil Vij

The Centre on Friday praised Haryana's COVID-19 response, lauding its performance on multiple parameters including the recovery rate and better-than-national doubling rate, State Health Minister Anil Vij said.

He said that Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, who held a meeting on the COVID-19 situation with State Health Ministers over videoconferencing, was appreciative of the steps taken by Haryana.

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“He appreciated the way Haryana has handled the situation. He was impressed when we informed him that our state's recovery rate was 67.63 per cent. He said it was a good sign.

“I also informed him that as of today, the state has 86 active COVID-19 patients, the rate of doubling of infections has now increased from 13.5 days to 17 days, while tests per million being conducted were 743, and the fatality rate was 1.09 per cent,” Vij said.

The national doubling rate stood at 10 days as on Friday.

Also Read: Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths

Vij said that none of the patients admitted in hospitals in the state is in ICU or has needed ventilator support, adding early detection of cases has helped.

He appreciated the role of doctors, nurses and paramedics in taking care of the patients and praised the police force for effectively implementing the lockdown.

Vij said that during the meeting, the state was told not to use rapid testing kits, as has already been advised by the India Council of Medical Research, the country’s apex medical research body.

Last week, India had procured five lakh rapid antibody test kits from two Chinese firms and they were distributed to several states reporting rise in the number of coronavirus cases.

But on Tuesday, the ICMR advised states to stop using these rapid antibody test kits till it examined their quality in the wake of complaints that they are not fully effective.

Vij said he brought to the Health Ministry's notice that Haryana had procured 25,000 rapid test kits from a South Korean company and it was not using the Chinese ones, but the state was asked to put these also on hold for the time being.

He said over 46 lakh people have been screened for the virus in the state.

As many as 9,997 people have complained of some symptoms like difficulty in breathing and the state wanted to use the rapid test kits of the South Korean company for screening them, he said.

Vij said he apprised the Union Health Minister that the Haryana government on Monday ordered a probe after four samples reported positive for coronavirus by a private laboratory tested negative in confirmation tests done at government centres.

“I said the results of this lab were found not correct when samples of the four patients from Ambala district came negative in confirmation tests done at different government labs. I told the minister that it can create havoc in the state if people who are negative turn positive in this manner,” said Vij.

He said Harsh Vardhan has assured that the ICMR will look into the issue and do the needful.

As a fallout of the incident, Vij said that a committee has been constituted to inspect all the five ICMR-approved private labs in the state.

“This committee may visit the premises of the private labs once in 10 days to have on-the-spot assessment. This committee will report to the Director of Health Services,” an official order said.

Meanwhile, Vij said that a central team visited some hospitals and containment zones in the state.