BENGALURU: Union Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Friday reviewed the management of Covid-19 in Karnataka and eight other states which are driving the present spurt of the active caseload in the country and recommended urgently ramping up testing, strictly implementing containment plans, augmenting health infrastructure and ensuring effective clinical management.Apart from Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Assam were issued the advisory. As part of Centre-state coordinated strategy for effective containment and management of the pandemic, a high-level virtual review meeting was chaired by Gauba along with the chief secretaries and health secretaries of the nine states.
In keeping with the ‘Test Track Treat’ strategy, the states were advised to ramp up testing with special focus on containment zones. Areas of concern with respect to low testing in certain states was highlighted and it was reiterated that sustained and aggressive testing was crucial for early identification of cases to prevent spread of infection.
Gauba stressed the need for prompt and proper delineation of containment zones as per guidelines of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and intensive contact tracing and house-to-house active case search within the containment zones to effectively break the chain of transmission, besides identifying buffer zones outside the containment zones and continued surveillance of SARI/ILI cases.
Gauba advised having a clear focus on health infrastructure availability, including the requisite number of beds, oxygen and ventilators across the state with implementation of clinical protocols ensuring the prescribed quality of care and seamless patient management. Effective ambulance management with zero refusal rate was also highlighted in the review meeting. The Cabinet Secretary also emphasized on the imperative of keeping the fatality rates low. For this, mapping of high-risk population must be done, particularly the elderly and aged people and those with co-morbidities.