The Centre has asked the States to focus more on effective surveillance, contact tracing and early diagnosis to keep low fatality rate of coronavirus.
“Surveillance for Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI) / Influenza Like Illness (ILI) should be intensified in unaffected districts and districts which have not reported cases from last 14 days and more through the IDSP network in collaboration with Medical Colleges and Hospitals. Such measures will help to indicate the presence of any possible hidden infection at an early stage thus helping in its timely containment”, Union health Minister Harsh Vardhan said during his meeting with the state Governments.
He stressed that the state Governments should ensure adoption of Infection, Prevention and Control (IPC) practices in all healthcare settings to avoid or reduce chances of infections to health care workers. The States were also asked to make sure that all Guidelines and Advisories are strictly implemented.
The states were also asked to focus on provisioning of non-COVID essential health services such as TB case tracing and treatment, immunisation drives, blood transfusion for dialysis patients, ANC of pregnant women and treatment of cancer patients. It was also stated that the Ayushman Bharat-Health and Wellness Centres could be used for screening for hypertension, diabetes and three types of cancers.
The States were also asked to make use of telemedicine and tele-counselling facility.
