With India reporting 43 cases of coronavirus, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Monday called upon states to adopt a cluster containment strategy making district collectors more accountable and laid emphasis on contact tracing and strengthening district surveillance teams to avoid widespread community transmission.
Vardhan, who chaired a review and coordination meeting with Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Health Minister Satyender Jain, mayors of the Municipal Corporations of Delhi and senior officials of various departments, said the government is prepared to deal with the novel coronavirus outbreak and his ministry is sending directives, including guidelines, to states in all languages on ways to contain it.
He also emphasised the need for states and Union territories to adhere to core capacities for disease preparedness and response like surveillance, laboratory diagnosis, hospital preparedness, logistic management, capacity building and risk communication, the ministry said in a statement.
He also advised states to stay alert and identify isolation facilities to accommodate large number of confirmed/suspected cases in each district as well as their logistics requirements.
He urged that the hospitals need to make proper arrangements for the segregation of the symptomatic patients and regular patients while visiting the health facility.
"Apart from ensuring safety of patients visiting the hospitals, hospitals should also ensure the safety of their health workers and doctors," he said while advising the Delhi government to enhance community awareness by utilising print, electronic and social media in local languages and through local cable TV channels, audio announcements and FM radio etc.
He also added that Delhi attracts a lot of tourists and hence, appropriate Information Education and Communication (IEC) should be done among both domestic and international travellers who are visiting Delhi.
Awareness campaign especially in the cluster such as slums in local language through public address system needs to be undertaken, he asserted.
Vardhan stressed the need to focus on the inter-sectoral coordination with the central ministries/departments and asked states and UTs to strengthen their preparedness and review actions on a daily basis.
States/UTs need to be more responsive and have to put their best efforts by taking appropriate actions and preparedness for COVID-19.
"The need of this hour is to adopt a more strategic approach like cluster containment strategy, making the District Collectors more accountable, contact tracing and strengthening state and district surveillance teams to avoid widespread community transmission and also breaking the transmission, if found," he said.
"Well coordinated actions between concerned departments, states and central ministries, corporation and agencies for contact tracing, community surveillance, hospital management, developing and managing isolation wards, awareness campaign are the key focus areas which need attention at this hour.
"We have to work together to fight the threat a posed by COVID-19," Vardhan told reporters, adding that the government is prepared to deal with the infection.
Kejriwal informed that a special task force is already in place and their training has been conducted. He added that the Delhi government will work in coordination with the central health ministry and adhere to the guidance and directions from central government on strengthening the measures in case of eventualities due to COVID-19.
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