Amid rising cases of Covid infection in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today directed officials to conduct regular mock drills in hospitals, increase the coverage of genome sequencing of positive cases and ensure that people take preventive measures against COVID-19. Take all necessary precautions.
The Prime Minister stressed that the COVID-19 pandemic is not over yet, therefore it is necessary to regularly take stock of the situation across the country.
The high-level meeting chaired by the Prime Minister comes at a time when the cases of Influenza and Covid-19 are on the rise in the country for the last two weeks. The cases of Kovid-19 infection in the country have reached the highest level in the last four months. At the end of February, the number of cases across the country was less than 200, but on March 21, 1,134 cases were reported. The daily infection rate also went above 1 percent. At present there are 7,026 infected persons of Kovid-19 across the country.
According to government data, new cases of Kovid are increasing in the country and during the last seven days, on an average, 888 new patients were found daily. During this, the weekly infection rate was 0.90 percent.
Prime Minister Modi stressed that patients, healthcare workers and doctors should wear masks and behave in a COVID-appropriate manner in hospital premises. He also said that senior citizens and already ill persons must wear masks while going to crowded areas. He asked the officers to ensure that necessary medicines and other materials for influenza and covid-19 are available in the hospitals and adequate number of beds and staff are arranged.
The government is monitoring the availability and prices of 20 core drugs required for Covid, 12 other drugs and eight buffer drugs and one drug for influenza. The Prime Minister held the last review meeting of Kovid on 22 December 2022, after which a mock drill of Kovid was also done in 22,000 hospitals of the country.
Today’s meeting was attended by PK Mishra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, VK Paul, Member Health, NITI Aayog, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, Advisor to the Prime Minister’s Office Amit Khare and officials from the Ministry of Health and the Indian Council of Medical Research.
The statement after the meeting said, ‘The Prime Minister has advised the states to pay constant attention to the five-pronged strategy. Under this strategy, it has been said to emphasize on investigation-detection of infection, vaccination and covid-friendly behavior and increasing laboratory tests in severe respiratory cases.
The Center had written to Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Telangana last week, warning them of a rise in Covid cases. The infection rate in these states is 1.1 to 2.8 percent. The country is witnessing a spurt in cases of H3N2 Influenza virus, a respiratory tract infection caused by four different types of viruses (A, B, C and D) belonging to the family Orthomyxiviridae.
