AMN
Centre has advised States and Union Territories to not let their guard down and maintain their preparedness for fighting COVID in view of the new Omicron variant. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan reviewed public health preparedness of the states for fighting COVID along with progress of vaccination with State Health Secretaries and National Health Mission MDs through video conference.
He re-emphasised the five-fold strategy of containment, testing and surveillance, clinical management, COVID Safe behaviour and vaccination. States were asked to keep a close and strict watch on number of Delta and Omicron cases in all districts, case positivity, doubling rate, and new emerging clusters and initiate containment in these areas.
They were advised to impose night curfews and ensure strict regulation of large gatherings, especially ahead of the forthcoming festivities. They were also asked to promptly notify “Containment Zones”, and “Buffer Zones” in case in new clusters of Covid positive cases. States going in for elections in the near future were asked to exponentially ramp up the vaccination, especially in the low coverage districts to protect the vulnerable population. States were urged to ensure hundred percent coverage of left out first and second dose eligible beneficiaries in an accelerated manner.
The Union Health Secretary reiterated that local containment measures are to be put in place by the district and local administration when either the test positivity increases beyond 10 percent or occupancy of oxygenated beds increases beyond 40 percent. States were advised that any restriction must be enforced for minimum of 14 days. The existing National Clinical Management Protocol remains unchanged for Omicron.
Satark & savdhaan: PM Modi calls for caution at review meet amid Omicron alarm
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday chaired a meeting to review the pandemic situation in the country in the wake of the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus disease.
A government release on the meeting said the PM asked senior officials to maintain a high level of vigil and alertness. He directed the Centre to work in close coordination with states and support their efforts of public health measures towards containment and management under the ‘Whole of Government’ approach. The strategy of the Centre for proactive, focussed, collaborative and cooperative fight against the pandemic should guide “all our future actions”, the PM said.
“In view of the new variant, we should be ‘satark’ (alert) and ‘saavdhan’ (take precaution),” the PM added.
The fight against the pandemic is not over, he said, stressing the need for continued adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour.
Further, Modi directed the officials to ensure that health systems in the states, beginning from the district level, are strengthened to meet any challenge posed by the Omicron variant.
“It is important for states to ensure that the oxygen supply equipment are installed and fully functional,” he said. He directed the officials to work with the state authorities on a regular basis and review the status of preparedness of various components of health infrastructure, including training and capacity building of human resources, timely availability of ambulances, readiness of states to operationalise Covid facilities for institutional quarantining, and effective and supervised monitoring of those in home isolation.
He also directed officials for effective use of tech tools for tele-medicine and tele-consultation.