Amid surge in COVID-19 cases, Mandaviya reviews preparedness, chairs key meeting

The meeting was held in view of the rising cases of the Omicron variant and the roll out of vaccination for the age group of 15-18 years which will start from the 3rd Jan

PGurus Newsdesk

January 2, 2022

The meeting was held in view of the rising cases of the Omicron variant and the roll out of vaccination for the age group of 15-18 years which will start from the 3rd Jan

Amid surging COVID-19 cases, Union Health Minister chairs key meeting

On Sunday, Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare chaired a key meeting with State Health Ministers and Principal Secretaries/ Additional Chief Secretaries of States/ UTs to review the Public Health Preparedness to COVID-19 and progress of the National COVID19 vaccination campaign.

The meeting was held in view of the rising cases of the Omicron variant and the rollout of vaccination for the age group of 15-18 years which will start from the 3rd Jan 2022 and precautionary dose for identified vulnerable categories.

He urged states/ UTs to better utilize the approved funds under Emergency Covid Response Package (ECRP-II) and directed them to expedite the progress in terms of ICU beds, oxygen beds, Pediatric ICU/ HDU beds, among others. Mandaviya has urged the states to reinvigorate their teams to work at the ground level and strengthen monitoring and containment mechanisms.

He also brought the attention of the states and UTs to the fact that collectively, they have only used just over 17 percent of the available approved funds under the Emergency Covid Response Package (ECRP-II).

The states were urged to effectively use IT tools for telemedicine and teleconsultation, including training and capacity building of human resources, timely availability of ambulances, readiness to operationalize Covid facilities for institutional quarantine, and effective and supervised monitoring of those in home isolation.

The Union Health Minister noted that globally, countries are experiencing 3-4 times the surge in COVID-19 cases in comparison to their earlier peaks. The Omicron variant being highly transmissible, a high surge in the case can overwhelm the medical system. He, therefore, advised the states to leave no stone unturned in ramping up infrastructure to manage a high surge so that India escapes unscathed from this episode of COVID-19.

“We have put up a strong fight against Covid earlier and this learning must be used to re-focus on efforts against the Omicron variant”, said Mandaviya in the meeting.

He stressed the continued need to follow Covid appropriate behavior along with a renewed and stringent focus on containment measures for addressing the present surge.

“We must focus on planning with regard to the 15-18 age group vaccination and precautionary doses for eligible beneficiaries“, said Mandaviya while underscoring the critical importance of vaccination drive.

He also urged states to ensure that the healthcare workers and frontline workers are fully vaccinated, as they form the vulnerable categories.

Stressing the need to ensure smooth implementation of new vaccination guidelines, the minister asked states to ensure the orientation of team members for vaccination of 15-18 years age group.

To avoid mixing-up of vaccines during administration, separate CVCs, separate session sites, separate queue (if at same session where adult vaccination is ongoing), and separate vaccination team (if at same session site) are to be strived for. States/ UTs were also advised to share their requirement of vaccine doses through district-wise estimation of beneficiaries using CoWIN. They were urged to plan for the distribution of Covaxin to identify session sites well in advance and publish sessions for at least 15 days to provide sufficient visibility.

State Health Ministers who joined the meet included S Pangnyu Phom from Nagaland, N K Das from Odisha, Dr. Prabhuram Choudhary from MP, Ma Subramanian from Tamil Nadu, Keshab Mahanta from Assam, Anil Vij from Haryana, Satyendar Jain from Delhi, Alo Libang from Arunachal Pradesh, Banna Gupta from Jharkhand, Mangal Pandey from Bihar, T S Singhdeo from Chhattisgarh and Chandrima Bhattacharjee, MoS Health from West Bengal.