HYDERABAD: Health Minister T Harish Rao on Friday asked the Central government to supply enough doses of vaccine to speed up inoculation against Covid-19. “The State has a stock of eight lakh doses of Covaxin and 80,000 doses of Covishield, but it has not even a single dose of Corbevax,” he said.
He, along with the officials of the health department, participated in a review meeting conducted by Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Madaviya on the preparedness of the States to deal with Covid-19 which appears to be on the rise once again.
The minister said that 48 per cent of the population in the State was inoculated with the third booster dose, higher than the national average of 23 per cent. He explained that this was possible due to regular monitoring, vigilance, and raising awareness levels among the people.
‘Centre must help in upkeep of equipment’
It was also discussed in the meeting that due to lack of annual maintenance contract, ventilators and pressure swing adsorption (PSA) oxygen-generating plants provided by the Central government were not being repaired.
Harish Rao appealed to the Centre to take steps to bring them into full use. As a pre-emptive action, ECRP-3 (Emergency Covid Response Package-3) should be considered to improve necessary medical facilities in the States.
In the context of increasing cases of Omicron sub-variant BF.7 in the world, the States have been directed to inform about the symptoms of the virus, mode of spread, its effect and the treatment. Looking at the past experiences, early measures should be taken to ensure that there is no shortage of oxygen supply. As a part of this, the Central government wants to bring a system of mapping to connect oxygen plants with nearby hospitals.
Health secretary to the Union Government Rajesh Bhushan issued an advisory for the States and UTs on the lurking danger. He asked them to ensure monitoring and reporting of district wise influenza-like illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) cases in all health facilities on a regular basis including the IHIP portal. The States have also been directed to test these cases for Covid-19.
The State governments need to prepare for any surge in cases by ensuring adequate testing in all the districts maintaining the recommended share of RT-PCR and Antigen tests, stock of existing hospital capacities in terms of bed availability, logistic requirements as well as the need for re-orientation of healthcare workers in the clinical management of COVID-19. This may be tested by conducting “dry runs” in hospitals, the Health Secretary, pointed out in his advisory.