Hyper-local strategies key to contain COVID-19: Amitabh Kant

Hyper-localisation and targeted interventions appear to be the government mantra to contain the spread of Covid-19 as it moves towards Lockdown 5.0, but with substantial relaxations.

A glimpse into the government thinking was given by NITI Ayog CEO Amitabh Kant who pointed out that five of the 15 worst-hit districts have been reporting deaths more than the national average, while nine districts have better recovery rates than the national average.

“Here, recovery rate, Case Fatality Rate & moving average needs monitoring & used to drive decision making. Hyper-localization & targeted interventions will help improve outcomes,” Kant said don Twitter.

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He said 30 districts account for 70% of the total cases of which 15 have more than 1,000 cases, while Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Thane account for 52% cases.

“Here, hotspots need to be quickly identified with aggressive testing, contact tracing & timely treatment is a must,” he said.

Kant noted that India's recovery rate has touched 47.6% whereas the case fatality rate (CFR) has remained consistently low at 3% as compared to over 14% in France, Italy and UK.

“Focus on hyper-localized containment strategies with timely testing, contact tracing, isolation & treatment are key,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has advised states to conduct sero-survey to assess the proportion of population including asymptomatic individuals exposed to Covid-19 infection.

Depending upon the level of sero-prevalence of infection, appropriate public health interventions can be planned and implemented for prevention and control of the disease, the ICMR said in a communication to state governments.