He stressed on the need to identify emerging hotspots by monitoring trends of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) cases and sending sufficient samples for testing of Covid-19 and influenza, and ramp up genome sequencing of positive samples.
In the virtual meeting, Mandaviya also called for creating awareness about following Covid-appropriate behaviour, and urged state and union territory health ministers to conduct mock drills of all hospital infrastructure on April 10 and 11 and review the health preparedness with district administrations and health officials on April 8 and 9.
He said the Centre and states need to work in a collaborative spirit as was done during the previous surges. India has been witnessing a steady increase in Covid-19 cases with average daily cases rising to 4,188 in the week ended April 7 from 571 in the week ended March 17.
While weekly positivity rate increased to 3.02% in the week ended Friday, eight states are reporting high number of cases with 10 or more districts reporting more than 10% positivity in Kerala, Maharashtra and Delhi, and more than five districts reporting more than 5% positivity in Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Haryana.
Mandaviya told states and UTs to significantly increase the rate of testing from 100 tests per million as on the week ended Friday, and also to increase the share of RT-PCR in tests.
The minister called for ramping up vaccination of all eligible populations, especially of the elderly and vulnerable population group. India has achieved over 90% coverage of primary vaccination. However, the coverage of precaution dose is low.
He asked all state health ministers to personally monitor and review the preparedness of all logistics and infrastructure including availability of sufficient designated hospital beds and to ensure that there is adequate stock of essential medicines.
He asked all the state health ministers to personally monitor and review the preparedness of all logistics and infrastructure including availability of sufficient designated hospital beds.
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