New Delhi, April 2
As India logged 81,466 daily infections in a six-month high on Friday and active cases touched five per cent of the total, the Centre said the current wave of the pandemic was more infectious than the past and flagged 11 states of serious concern, including Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.
At an emergency meeting with chief secretaries, DGPs and health secretaries of all states on Friday, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba said the current COVID case growth rate of 6.8 per cent in March 2021 had surpassed the previous record of 5.5 per cent in June 2020.
This means the current wave is more virulent and could lead to more hospitalisations.
The Centre asked states to use laws to enforce COVID appropriate behaviour, plan to ramp up ICU beds, oxygen and isolation facilities and ensure 100 per cent vaccination of eligible people on priority.
Gauba said India had reported a very high 5.5 per cent growth rate in daily COVID deaths in March.
“The country has reported 97,000 daily new COVID cases at the peak of the pandemic in September 2020. We have now already reached 81,000 daily new cases of COVID,” the top bureaucrat said.
The 11 states of serious concern are Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Chandigarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Haryana.
Maharashtra, Punjab and Chandigarh were termed as states of particular worry as national COVID 19 load reached 1,23,03,131 and daily deaths soared to 469 on Friday—the highest since December 6.
The Cabinet Secretary said the 11 states had contributed 90 per cent COVID cases and 90.5 per cent deaths as on March 31, in the last 14 days.
“These states have either crossed or are about to cross their earlier reported peaks”, he said calling “worrisome” the fact that Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities along with peri-urban areas had recorded recent high rushes in cases and the spread of infection to villages was a possibility.
“This will overwhelm local administrations,” he warned, as India saw a record 24-hour vaccination of 36.7 lakh and cumulative doses administered reached 6.87 crore on Friday.
The Cabinet Secretary advised states to set up containment zones (district level lockdowns) to break the chain of transmission; raise testing to ensure positivity falls below 5 pc; ensure RT-PCR tests are 70 per cent of all tests; reduce waiting time of test results; subject rapid antigen negative cases to RT-PCR tests; ensure prompt institutional isolation of those infected; ensure home isolated are monitored daily and ensure tracing of 30 close contacts of COVID positive people.
States were also asked to examine case fatality rate hospital-wise, devise strategy and mitigate concerns regarding late admission in hospitals and non-adherence to National Clinical Management Protocol.
He stressed district action plans with a focus on mapping cases and reviewing of ward- and block-wise indicators.
The states were also told to increase the number of isolation beds, oxygen beds, ventilators and ICU beds; plan for adequate oxygen supply; strengthen ambulance services and reduce response time and refusal rate with regular monitoring by local administration and ensure adequate number of contractual staff and optimal rostering of duties.
Discussions
Discussions
