Aatmja Kumari(Intern Journalist): As part of the central government’s coordinated strategy for effective control and management of the Covid-19 pandemic, a high-level review meeting was chaired by the Cabinet Secretary today.
NITI Aayog members (Health), Union Health Secretary, Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Senior Officers of Ministry of Health and Ministry of Home Affairs, and Chief Secretaries of 12 States and Union Territories participated in this review meeting. The 12 states and union territories participating in this video conference included Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Chandigarh, Telangana, Kerala, Delhi, Punjab, and West Bengal. About 80 percent of the cases of Covid in the country are from these states and union territories.
Commerce and Industry Minister also addressed these states and reviewed the availability of oxygen in these states. The Union Minister specifically requested the states to focus their attention on analyzing the state of health facilities at the district level and to effectively plan and manage logistical issues related to the availability of oxygen. He also urged the states to share their best practices, which can be followed by other states and union territories of the country.
The Cabinet Secretary, while referring to increasing the number of tests from states, expressed concern that the death rates of many states are still much higher than the national average. He urged to analyze the districts and hospital-wise death tolls to identify high-risk areas. The cabinet secretary also motivated the states to ensure optimum utilization of RT-PCR capability. He emphasized the need to ensure that no symptomatic negative case (tested by rapid antigen test) is omitted and that all such cases undergo an essentially administered RT-PCR test.
The Union Health Secretary detailed the status report of Covid-19 to pay special attention to the number of tests being conducted in each state and union territory, their positivity rate and their average daily CFR, availability of health infrastructure, and availability of district wise oxygen. Also presented.
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