Union Health Secretary also reviews COVID-19 management strategies with health secretaries of six states/UT exhibiting high surge, caseload and fatality
To provide extended guidance in managing a sudden surge of COVID-19 cases and reduce mortality, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has decided to deploy central teams to Punjab and UT of Chandigarh for ten days.
The states/UTs have been advised to proactively undertake comprehensive measures to break the chain of transmission of the infectious disease and lower mortality, such that it eventually dips below 1 per cent.
The teams, comprising a community medicine expert from PGIMER, Chandigarh and an epidemiologist from NCDC, will assist the state/UT in strengthening public health measures for containment, surveillance, testing and efficient clinical management of COVID-19 patients and will also guide in effectively addressing challenges related to timely diagnosis and follow up.
Punjab has reported a total of 60,013 cases, whereas it has 15,731 active Cases, on date. It has registered 1739 deaths. The Testing Per Million figure for the state is 37546 (India’s average figure is 34593.1 at present). With 4.97 per cent, it hovers at the lower spectrum of cumulative positivity. Chandigarh is reporting 2095 active cases whereas its cumulative cases stand at 5268. Testing Per Million and cumulative positivity stand at 38054 and 11.99 per cent, respectively.
Union Health Secretary also engaged with health secretaries of six states/UT exhibiting high surge, caseload and fatality to improve their management of the crisis, focusing on 35 districts under their jurisdiction. Addressing the participants via video conference, the Union Secretary underscored the need to suppress, curb and eventually break the chain of transmission of the infectious disease by strengthening the active case search focusing on the comorbids and elderly population; revisiting and strengthening the containment measures in the affected areas; and scaling up the testing to decrease the positivity rates below 5 per cent.
Globally, as testing ramps up further India now has the highest number of new COVID-19 cases (+91,723), taking the country to the second position, after the US in total number of cases. The country has the third highest number of deaths due to COVID-19, after the US and Brazil. Global recoveries are highest in Brazil, followed by India and then the US.
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