COVID-19: Centre directs States to focus all efforts on reducing mortality rate

Senior Central health officials met representatives of States reporting a high caselo of COVID-19 and higher Case Fatality Rate (CFR) than national aver and vised m on efforts to prevent and reduce mortality among Coronavirus cases. India's CFR currently stands at 2.04 per cent.

Two high-level virtual meetings chaired by Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary on August 7 and 8 as part of continuous process of review and handholding of States/UTs for collaborative manment of COVID-19.

Issues discussed

Saturday’s meeting was focused on 13 districts concentrated in eight States/UT. se are Kamrup Metro in Assam; Patna in Bihar; Ranchi in Jharkhand; Alappuzha and Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala; Ganjam in Odisha; Luckw in Uttar Presh; 24 Paraganas rth, Hooghly, Howrah, Kolkata and Maldah in West Bengal; and Delhi. se districts account for nearly 9% of India's active cases and about 14% of COVID deaths. y also report low tests per million and high confirmation percent.

A surge has been observed in daily new cases in four districts viz. Kamrup Metro in Assam; Luckw in Uttar Presh; Thiruvananthapuram and Alappuzha in Kerala. Principal Secretary (Health) and MD (NHM) from eight States along with district surveillance officers, district collectors, commissioners of municipal corporation, Chief Medical Officers, and Medical Superintendent of Medical Colleges participated in virtual meeting.

Several issues critical to reducing case fatality rate were discussed during meeting. States were vised to dress issues of low lab utilisation i.e. less than 100 tests per day for RT-PCR and 10 for ors; low tests per million population; decrease in absolute tests from last week; delay in test results; and high confirmation percent among health care workers.

y were vised to ensure timely referral and hospitalisation in view of reports from some districts of patients dying within 48 hours of mission. States were directed to ensure availability of ambulances with zero tolerance for refusal. need to ensure monitoring asymptomatic cases under home isolation with special focus on physical visits/phone consultations on a daily basis was underscored. States were asked to ensure a timely assessment and make vance preparedness for infrastructure viz. ICU beds, oxygen supply, etc., based on prevailing caselo and estimated growth rate.

RE | Coronavirus LIVE Updates

RE | Grocery Shops, Vendors Could Be Potential COVID Spreers, Test m: Health Min To States

Virtual sessions for doctors

It was reiterated that AIIMS, New Delhi is holding virtual sessions twice every week on Tuesdays and Fridays where a specialist team of doctors provides guidance on effective clinical manment of COVID-19 patients in ICUs of different State hospitals through tele/video consultation, to reduce case fatality rate.

State authorities were vised to ensure that State Centers of Excellence or hospitals participate in se VCs regularly to improve clinical practices. States were vised to follow all Central protocols for effective manment of containment and buffer zones along with seamless patient and clinical manment of patients with special focus on critical cases. Ar major area highlighted was that of preventable deaths by strict surveillance among high-risk population like people with co-morbidities, pregnant women, elderly, and children.

Coronavirus cases

India has so far reported 2,088,611 detected cases of COVID-19 of which 14,27,005 patients have recovered. death toll due to pandemic stands at 42,518. number of active cases — those under medical supervision — has risen to 6,19,088.

Maharashtra, Tamil Nu, Andhra Presh, Karnataka, and Delhi are top five states with highest number of confirmed cases. 

(PTI Photo for representation)

RE | COVID-19 May Have Longer Incubation Period Lasting Up To 8 Days: Study

RE | India Coronavirus Recovery Rate Touches 68%, Fatality Rate At 2.05% As Cases Top 20 Lakh