Centre tells Maharashtra to conduct door-to-door TB survey as well amid rising COVID cases

Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan on Thursday held a high-level meeting via video conference with Maharasthra Health Minister Rajesh Tope, Medical Education Minister Amit Deshmukh and district magistrates of COVID-19 affected districts in the state to review the COVID-19 situation in Maharashtra. He directed the state government to ensure active tuberculosis survey along with the house-to-house COVID-19 surveys.

'Active survey for TB cases should be done'

According to an official statement, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, "The state must ensure that essential services for TB diagnosis and management do not suffer as these patients are very much prone to the COVID-19 infection. Active survey for TB cases should be done along with the house to house surveys being conducted for COVID-19."

Director of National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) SK Singh made a presentation on the COVID-19 outbreak status in Maharashtra highlighting the districts that were showing a higher number of active cases, case fatality rate, confirmation rate, doubling time and low testing rate.

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Maharashtra was advised to ensure the prohibition of spitting in public places to control the spread and take strict action against the offenders. Adequate measures for prevention of vector-borne diseases also need to be taken, the state authorities were advised. Dr. Harsh Vardhan also told the state officials that testing labs should ensure prompt delivery of reports of COVID-19 tests to help in the timely detection and management of patients.

"We have ramped up our testing capacity through a network of 602 government labs and 235 private labs (total 837 labs). We have cumulatively tested 52,13,140 samples till date and 1,51,808 samples were tested in the last 24 hours," he added.

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The Health Minister also highlighted the need for strengthening human resource for contact tracing, logistics enhancement like ICU beds with ventilators, beds with facility available for oxygen supplementation, etc. and strengthening behaviour change communication activities to reduce community resistance and counselling of high-risk contacts, according to the official statement.

The state was also advised to ensure focus on essential RMNCHA+N (Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health Plus Nutrition) services with special care for pregnant women along with services like blood collection/transfusion, chemotherapy, dialysis.

Maharasthra reported 3,607 new coronavirus cases and 152 deaths on Thursday, taking the total number of positive cases in the state to 97,648. 

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(With agency inputs)