NEW DELHI: Amid a spike in Covid-19 cases, mock drills to take stock of hospital preparedness were held in several government and private facilities across the country on Monday. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya visited the Centre-run Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RML) in Delhi and reviewed the mock drill.
The health ministry said it received a “huge response” nationwide where state health ministers and senior officials reviewed the preparations and capacities of hospitals and facilities. Officials said similar mock drills were conducted in Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Jammu. Two-day mock drills have been planned to check the preparedness of the health facilities.
India has registered 5,880 new Covid-19 cases, while the active cases touched 35,199 in the last 24 hours. India reported 14 deaths, four each from Delhi and Himachal Pradesh taking the toll to 5,30,979, according to the health ministry data updated on Monday.
One death each was reported from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir, and Rajasthan. Two reconciled deaths were reported from Kerala. India’s active caseload currently stands at 35,199, while the recovery rate is currently at 98.73 per cent. Mandaviya, who had taken a meeting with state health ministers on April 7, had directed the officials to oversee the mock drills on April 10 and 11.
The health minister on Monday took a round of the RML hospital and oversaw the preparations, including beds, medicines, and oxygen, officials said. The minister held an informal interactive session with heads of departments, doctors, nurses, and heads of security and sanitation services and discussed quality clinical practices, measures for infection control, hospital management, sanitation, and patient-centric provisions. Mandaviya has already advised states to be on alert and keep all preparedness for Covid-19 management.
Mandaviya stressed the need to identify emergency hotspots by monitoring trends of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI)cases, ramping up testing and vaccination, and ensuring readiness of hospital infrastructure. Besides enhancing genome sequencing and ramping up whole genome sequencing of positive samples, he laid stress on creating awareness about following Covid-appropriate behaviour.
It was highlighted that while Omicron and its sub-lineages continue to be the predominant variants, most of the assigned variants have little or no significant transmissibility, disease severity or immune escape.
The current spike, triggered by XBB.1.16, which is further mutating, has led eight states to report a high number of new cases in India, with ten or more districts reporting more than 10% positivity in Kerala, Maharashtra and Delhi. Over five districts reported more than 5% positivity in Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Haryana.
The prevalence of XBB.1.16 increased from 21.6% in February to 35.8% in March. However, no evidence of an increase in hospitalisation or mortality has been reported. Mandaviya had said that irrespective of the new variants, the five-fold strategy of “Test-Track-Treat-Vaccinate and adherence to Covid-Appropriate Behaviour” continues to remain the tested strategy for Covid management.
DRILLS TO TEST
Spike rate of XBB.1.16 increased from 21.6% in February to 35.8% in March
5,880 new cases
35,199 active in last 24 hours
98.7% Recovery rate
5,30,979 Total cases
14 deaths reported. Four each from Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, one each from Gujarat, Maharashtra, J&K and Rajasthan. Two reconciled deaths were reported from Kerala.