The Cabinet Secretary on Thursday held a video conference with the Chief Secretaries and Health Secretaries of nine states and one UT. The states/Union Territory attending were Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Gujarat, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir, along with the Union Health Secretary, DG ICMR and Member (Health), NITI Aayog.
The video conferencing was convened to review and discuss the Covid management and response strategy in these states/Union Territory.
The Union Health Secretary made a detailed presentation on the current status of Covid-19 in these areas, with a focus on districts reporting high case fatality and the need to refine as well as strengthen approach and strategies relating to testing, contact tracing, surveillance, containment, home isolation, availability of Ambulances, hospital beds, oxygen, treatment protocols, etc.
It was observed that out of the total deaths in the country in the last two weeks, 89% of deaths are in these 10 states/UT and hence, these states/UT need to have continued and rigorous vigil so as to contain the spread of infection as well as take steps to reduce fatalities.
The states/UT were advised to proactively take steps towards reducing case fatality to less than 1% across all districts.
The focus has to be laid on effective containment, contact tracing & surveillance. All close contacts should be traced and tested within 72 hours for at least 80% of new positive cases and a minimum of 140 tests per million per day in all districts must be ensured while targeting a positivity/confirmation rate of <5%.
Leveraging Antigen tests in containment zones/healthcare settings & retesting of all symptomatic negatives with RT-PCR must be done. The availability of beds and ambulances across Covid-19 facilities must be put in public domain and reduction in ambulance response time has to be ensured.
The Chief Secretaries explained the current situation in the States/UT and their preparedness to tackle the spread of Covid-19, health infrastructure available to meet the challenge and steps taken to strengthen it further. States/UT also highlighted steps taken towards reducing case fatality as well as involving the community in terms of Covid-safe behaviour.