Leave no stone unturned to manage 'high surge'; Centre tells states as Covid cases spike

Inoculation of children in this age category will start on January 3

Amid rising Covid-19 cases and an uptick in Omicron numbers, Centre on Sunday asked the states to "leave no stone unturned" in ramping up infrastructure to "manage a high surge" and prepare a weekly plan to catch up and exceed the average national vaccination coverage.

While Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya held detailed interactions with state health ministers and top state officials asking them to review the implementation of this plan on a daily basis with special emphasis in five poll-bound states of Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Manipur, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan in a fresh letter to states and Union Territories told them about Centre's plan to hold a series of webinars from January 5 to January 19 on various aspects of clinical management of Covid cases in collaboration with AIIMS, Delhi.

Also read: Centre to hold series of webinars on aspects of clinical management of Covid cases

A total of 1,525 cases of Omicron variant of coronavirus have been detected across 23 states and Union Territories so far. India's Active caseload currently stands at 1,22,801. Case positivity in Delhi itself climbed up to 4.59 per cent, the highest single-day rise since May 20 last year.

Active Covid-19 cases rose from about 2,000 on December 29, 2021, to 6,000 on January 1. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, however, said that there is no need to panic, arguing that the oxygen bed occupancy is less than one per cent in hospitals and is very low as compared to the deadly second wave of coronavirus in April last year.

Also read: Omicron milder, no need to panic, says AIIMS chief

"The growth trajectory of Covid-19 cases and Variant of Concern (VOC) Omicron, in some of the states and Union Territories in the country is a matter of concern. While public health action in terms of containment, surveillance, contact tracing, testing, adherence to Covid appropriate behaviour and vaccination is of prime importance, it is equally crucial that efforts are made by all stakeholders to minimize the mortality due to Covid-19 to a minimum possible level," Bhushan said in the letter.

The Health Minister held a comprehensive and detailed discussion on various aspects of Covid management including ramping up of hospital infrastructure; increased testing, stringent restrictive measures for breaking the chain of transmission and addressing the critical bottlenecks in medical infrastructure were also discussed.

Also Read | Spike of 3,100 Covid-19 cases expected today but no need to panic: Delhi CM

The meeting that was held in view of the rising cases of the Omicron variant and the recent decisions to roll out vaccination for the age group 15-18 years and precautionary dose for identified vulnerable categories, was attended by Health Ministers of Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Haryana, Delhi, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Nagaland, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh among others.

Mandaviya brought to their attention that the States/UTs have only used just over 17% of the available approved funds under Emergency Covid Response Package (ECRP-II). States/UTs were exhorted to expedite the physical progress under ECRP-II in terms of ICU beds, oxygen beds, Pediatric ICU/HDU beds.

The government stressed the need to ensure the smooth implementation of new vaccination guidelines. They were asked to avoid the mixing-up of vaccines during administration and strive for separate CVCs, separate session sites, separate queues and separate vaccination teams. States/UTs were advised to ensure the orientation of vaccinators and vaccination team members for vaccination of 15-18 years age-group and the identification of dedicated session sites for vaccination of 15-18 years age-group. States/UTs were also advised to share their requirement of vaccine doses through district-wise estimation of beneficiaries using Co-WIN.

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