Centre lists out 7-step strategy to deal with COVID-19 spike at district-level

Amid the surge in coronavirus cases Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Tuesday wrote to Chief Secretaries of all states and Union Territories seeking action at the district levels including public health measures focus on mortality reduction and 100 per cent saturation vaccination of priority age groupsIn the letter he said that many districts are seeing clusters of cases emerging because of specific events and or places where crowding happens or where large number of people are in close physical contact coupled with lack of Covidappropriate behaviourGiving the states and UTs seven pointers for action at the district level Bhushan asked those with a highcase load and fast growth of cases to ensure 100 per cent saturation vaccination of the priority age group of 45 year and above in the coming two weeksStates have also been asked to focus on mortality reduction and examine case fatality rate and its growth identify localities and hospitals where deaths are high and analyse deaths to understand whether they were due to late detection or surveillance failureHe also sought enforcement of Covid19 appropriate behaviour using the Police Act or powers under the Disaster Management Act Besides elected representatives local influencers celebrities religious leaders etc should be roped in to ensure Covid appropriate behaviour he urgedThe fourth action to control the pandemic includes efficient implementation of Test Track and Treat Bhushan said noting that it remains the only proven strategy for control of transmissionHe also said that each district irrespective of whether it is seeing a surge right now or has a current low burden should make an action plan with clear timelines and responsibilities and including mapping of cases reviewing sub area wise indicators like case positivity rate rate of growth of cases case fatality doubling rate of cases on a real time basis The RTPCR tests must be more than 70 per cent he addedThe action plan must also review the geographical spread of infection day on day identify possible source or sources and an Emergency Operations Centre with a team to monitor the indicators their growth and spread 24x7 should be set upThe Health Secretary also stressed that individual actions such as proper wearing of masks covering nose and mouth maintaining six feet distance from others and sanitising ones hands frequently must be ensuredLastly he asked the states and UTs to take public health measures by quarantining and testing individuals suspected to be positive including close contacts of positive persons isolating all those who are positive and testing themBhushan requested states and the UTs to disseminate the following points among all the districts during indepth review meetingsIndia recorded 56211 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours taking the total tally to 12095855 on Tuesday Six states Maharashtra Punjab Karnataka Madhya Pradesh Tamil Nadu and Gujarat continue to report a surge in daily new casesThis is the second peak India had fought the first six months ago recording a highest singleday spike of 93617 cases on September 16 and the highest number of deaths 1169 on September 15Bhushan rued that after having successfully brought down the number of new Covid cases from midSeptember 2020 to February 2021 India is now witnessing a rapid rise in casesYou have been leading the effort of Covid Pandemic management with your teams so far The current rise in cases is of concern and has the potential of overwhelming health care systems unless checked right now he said in his letterThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever