NEW DELHI: Flagging that 89% of the Covid-19 deaths have been reported in the country from 10 states over the last two weeks, the Centre on Thursday asked these states to take immediate steps to cut down the mortalities due to the infectious disease.
The states and Union Territories where the Covid-19 deaths are high include Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Gujarat, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir.
In the meeting chaired by the Union cabinet secretary, in which top administrative officials from 10 states took part, detailed discussions were held on the districts reporting high case fatality and the need to refine strategies related to testing, contact tracing, surveillance, containment, clinical management of patients and home isolation among others.
These states have been urged to proactively take steps towards reducing case fatality to less than 1% across all districts by focusing on effective containment, contact tracing, and surveillance and ensuring that in at least in 80% of new positive cases, all close contacts are traced and tested within 72 hours.
The Centre also reiterated that it is a must to ensure a minimum of 140 tests per million per day in all districts while targeting a test positivity rate of under 5%. It also said that rapid antigen tests should be widely used in containment zones, healthcare settings and all symptomatic negatives should be followed with RTPCR.
Country's top bureaucrat also made it clear that regular monitoring of home isolation patients should be done and timely admission of patients to healthcare facilities should be ensured in case their oxygen level falls below the designated level.
Significantly, the states have also been asked to monitor week-wise fatality rates for each health facility with a particular focus on vulnerable patients, such as those with co-morbidities or above 60 years of age.
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