NEW DELHI: As the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases crossed 2.5 lakh-mark on Monday, the Centre reiterated on the need for conducting door-to-door surveys in 38 districts across 10 states that have the highest case loads.
In a meeting with district and state-level authorities, top officials of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare also asked states to make a district-wise perspective plan for the coming months in view of the lockdown being eased and curbs being lifted.
The districts that participated in the meeting headed by Union health secretary Preeti Sundan were from Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh.
Main issues discussed were the widespread infection in densely-populated urban areas, the importance of house-to-house surveys, prompt testing followed by prompt isolation, clinical management of cases and containment strategy to be implemented.
The country now has 2,56,611 confirmed cases of which 7,135 have already died.
Health ministry officials, meanwhile, advised states on the measures to be taken in the containment zones for case management and buffer zones surveillance activities and promotion of Covid appropriate behaviour.
To reduce the case fatality rate, the Centre has stressed on measures such as like prioritising the high-risk and vulnerable segments like elderly people and people with co-morbidities while contact-tracing to prevent deaths; active surveillance, adequate testing and promoting health-seeking behaviour for timely detection of cases and ensuring timely shifting of patients without escalating the symptoms.
On the issues of infrastructure and human resource management for the containment of Covid-9, the Centre asked states to carry out adequate planning for health infrastructure, deploy an adequate number of surveillance teams and set up a system for communicating bed availability.
It was also highlighted that along with Covid-19 management efforts, care needs to be given to the regular and essential health services that are also available for the citizens.
The Centre also underlined the need for augmentation of the survey teams, efficient ambulance management, efficient triaging of patients at the hospitals and bed management and clinical management of the hospitalised cases through rotational 24X7 teams.
The secretary also suggested states to involve the elected representatives in the rural areas for cooperating with the district health authorities for confidence building and timely accessing of available health services and activating fever clinics for detection of severe acute respiratory illnesses and flu cases in the buffer zones.