NEW DELHI: In a review meeting on nine states seeing rising Covid-19 cases, the Centre on Friday asked them to map their high-risk population and ramp up testing in order to detect cases early.
These measures are crucial to keep the infection-related fatalities low, the states were told.
The nine states where there has been a worrying surge in coronavirus cases over the last few weeks include Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal, Assam, Karnataka, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh.
The high-level virtual review meeting was chaired by the cabinet secretary and had chief secretaries and health secretaries of the nine states in attendance.
In keeping with the “test-track-treat’ strategy, the states were advised to ramp up the testing with a special focus on containment zones.
“Areas of concern with respect to low testing in certain states were highlighted,” said a statement from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare following the meeting.
“It was reiterated that sustained and aggressive testing is crucial for early identification of cases and to prevent the spread of infection.”
Cabinet secretary stressed the need for prompt and proper delineation of containment zones as per the Central guidelines, intensive contact tracing, and house-to-house active case search within the Containment Zones so as to effectively break the chain of transmission.
The Union government reiterated the need of identifying buffer zones outside the containment zones and continued surveillance of severe respiratory illness and influenza-like illness cases.
States were advised to have a clear focus on health infrastructure availability including the requisite number of beds, oxygen, and ventilators across the state with the implementation of clinical protocols ensuring the prescribed quality of care and seamless patient management, the government said.
Effective ambulance management with zero refusal rate was also highlighted in the review meeting.
The Centre has been stressing that mapping of people particularly the elderly and those with co-morbidities was a must in order to keep the deaths low.