India Covid Surge: 2-day Nationwide Drill To Start In Hospitals Today To Check Preparedness

The nationwide mock drill is aimed at checking preparedness to deal with the evolving Covid-19 situation in the country. It will be carried out in both public and private facilities on Monday and Tuesday.?

In a Covid-19 review meeting chaired by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya last month, states and Union Territories (UTs) were advised to hold such drills to assess preparedness. The states and UTs were also asked to increase testing, boost coverage of precaution doses of coronavirus vaccines, and promote Covid-appropriate behaviour, amont other things.?

Besides the drill, Mandaviya had also asked for a review of preparedness with district administrations and health officials on April?8 and 9.

As nationwide drills start on Monday, Mandaviya will visit AIIMS Jhajjar in Haryana to oversee the mock drill, officials said on Sunday.?

India's Covid-19 situation

India currently has 32,814 active Covid-19 cases, as per the latest figures available. On Sunday, India reported 5,357 new coronavirus cases.

The?death toll has increased to?5,30,965 with 11 deaths. While three deaths were reported from Gujarat, two were from Himachal Pradesh and one each from Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh besides one reconciled by Kerala, as per the figures released on Sunday.

Delhi has reported a surge in Covid-19 in recent weeks with a high positivity rate. Delhi on Sunday logged 699 fresh Covid-19 cases with a positivity rate of 21.15, according to data shared by the Delhi health department.

Four people suffering from Covid-19 died in Delhi. However, the health bulletin stated that Covid-19 was the primary cause of death in just one case.

Delhi has witnessed a spurt in the number of fresh Covid infections over the last fortnight amid a sharp rise in H3N2 influenza cases in the country. The number of fresh cases had dropped to zero on January 16, the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic.

What did Centre tell states, UTs?

In the meeting with state health ministers, and principal and additional chief secretaries held virtually, Mandaviya last week had 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 had emphasised creating awareness about following Covid-appropriate behaviour.

During the meeting, states and union territories were informed that currently the World Health Organisation (WHO) is closely tracking a variant of interest (VOI), XBB.1.5, and six other variants are under monitoring (BQ.1, BA.2.75, CH.1.1, XBB, XBF and XBB.1.16), a health ministry statement had said.

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 prevalence of XBB.1.16 increased from 21.6 per cent in February to 35.8 per cent in March. However, no evidence of an increase in hospitalisation or mortality has been reported, the statement said.

During the meeting, it was observed that 23 states and union territories had average tests per million below the national average.

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.

States and union territories were also requested to expeditiously increase the rate of testing from 100 tests per million as on the week ending April 7. They were further advised to increase the share of RT-PCR in tests.

(With PTI inputs)