As Covid-19 situation worsens, 'Follow district-centric approach to curb rise' says Centre

As India's Covid-19 tally jumped over 1.2 crore and at least 271 people succumbed to the virus, taking the total number of deaths due to coronavirus in India to 1,62,114, the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday issued a warning to all the state in the country, observing that India is facing an "increasingly severe and intense" Covid situation. Officials from the ministry were quoted by PTI as saying that "The whole country is at risk and any complacency at this stage, and at any level, will have heavy costs."

Centre suggests states follow district-centric approach to combat Covid-19 spike

The Centre has asked all the state authorities to ready the ICUs and other mandatory medical infrastructure, while it cautioned that due to the sudden surge in coronavirus cases in India, the healthcare system in the country would be "overwhelmed." The Centre suggested the states follow a "district-centric approach" to combat the upward swing in cases, as it explained, "Each district, irrespective of whether it is seeing a surge or is with low burden, should formulate an action plan with clear timelines and responsibilities."

NITI Aayog member (Health) V K Paul also observed ''COVID-19 situation is turning from bad to worse. n the last few weeks, especially in some states, it is a huge cause for worry. No state, no part of the country should be complacent.'' He warned that the country's healthcare system would be overwhelmed if the rise in the cases continues.

'Maharashtra and New Delhi have maximum Covid-19 cases'

At least 10 districts have recorded a maximum number of Covid-19 cases in the past few weeks. The ten districts being Pune (59,475), Mumbai (46,248), Nagpur (45,322), Thane (35,264), Nashik (26,553), Aurangabad (21,282), Bengaluru Urban (16,259), Nanded (15,171), Delhi (8,032) and Ahmednagar (7,952). According to Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, eight of the 10 districts are from Maharashtra and New Delhi, while Delhi he said has been considered as one district.
 
In a letter to all chief secretaries, Bhushan detailed that "Public health measures can be used by states to contain the virus by quarantining and testing individuals suspected to be positive including close contacts of positive persons (at least 25 to 30 such contacts per positive person), isolating all those who are positive tracing their contacts, quarantining and testing them."

'Close contacts of people who test positive for Covid-19 must be traced in three days'

He added "Only quarantining individuals or families where there are clusters will not help. In such cases, larger containment zones are needed with clear boundaries and stringent controls." He said that 'test track and treat' has been the only proven strategy to control the contraction of the virus till now and asserted '' In addition, a number of new districts that saw a limited prevalence earlier are worryingly showing a surge in Covid cases. States, UTs and Districts that have current low levels of cases, however, cannot be complacent."

Referring to protocols over isolation, Bhushan observed that in most states the people who have contracted Covid-19, are not being isolated properly. ''Their close contacts must be traced within three days. Close contact does not mean just the family but all those infected people came in contact with. Those hospitals which were made non-COVID facilities must be converted to dedicated COVID facilities. There should be no delay in strengthening private as well as public health facilities," Bhushan wrote in the letter.
 
Meanwhile, the health ministry has observed there is a steady increase in the cases for the twentieth day in a row, active cases rose to 5,40,720 comprising 4.47 percent of the total infections, while the recovery rate is at 94.19 percent. India has been recording at least 60,000 cases in a day since the start of this week.