Health infrastructure must be ramped up to ensure preparedness for next 2 months: Govt
New Delhi: Health infrastructure should be ramped up to ensure preparedness for the next two months in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the government has conveyed to eleven municipal areas in the country that have accounted for 70 per cent of India's coronavirus case load.
Eleven municipal areas from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Rajasthan account for 70 per cent of the active caseload, the Union health ministry said in a statement.
The government has asked the eleven municipal areas to step up monitoring in old cities, urban slums and other high density pockets like camps and clusters for migrant workers for management of COVID-19 cases.
Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan, who held a high-level meeting on Saturday through video conferencing with principal health secretaries and municipal commissioners along with other officials from the 11 municipal areas, urged them to focus on prevention through active screening of high risk and vulnerable population along with effective and sturdy clinical management of the admitted cases to reduce fatality rate.
COVID-19 cases in India saw the biggest spike for the third consecutive day on Sunday with 6,767 new infections reported in the last 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 1,31,868, while the death toll due to the disease rose to 3,867 after 147 more fatalities, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday.
The active cases of the coronavirus disease rose to 73,560. While 54,440 people have recovered, one patient has migrated to another country, according to the ministry's bulletin.
"Thus, around 41.28 per cent patients have recovered so far," a Health Ministry official said.
During the meeting on Saturday, a presentation was made to highlight the trend in case trajectory with respect to total confirmed cases, case fatality rate, doubling time, tests per million and confirmation percentage, the ministry said.
"It was told that a major challenge lies in those corporations having shorter doubling time, higher mortality rate and a higher confirmation rate than the national average," the ministry said in its statement.
The officials were briefed about the factors to be considered while mapping the containment and buffer zones and the activities mandated in containment zones like perimeter control, active search for cases through house to house surveillance, contact tracing, clinical management of the active cases.
They were also asked to undertake surveillance activities in the buffer zone like monitoring of severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) and influenza like illness (ILI) cases and promoting social distancing and hand hygiene among others.
It was pointed out that testing needs to be stepped up in some municipal areas to ensure early detection of cases, timely clinical management and a reduction in fatality rate.
"They also need to be mindful of ramping up the health infrastructure to ensure preparedness for the next two months with special focus on isolation beds with oxygen, ventilators and ICU beds," the health ministry statement said.
Other issues that need focused attention include active coordination with government and private labs to address delays in sample collection, partnership with private hospitals to augment the health/bed capacity, waste disposal and disinfection of COVID positive areas, management of camps for migrant labourers, creating awareness regarding issues such as stigmatization of patients and medical professionals in local languages, actively involving community leaders, youth groups, NGOs and SHGs in accompanying surveillance teams for awareness and confidence building measures, it said.
"Maintaining high vigilance and monitoring in areas of old cities, urban slums and other high density pockets along with the camps/clusters for migrant workers are important steps in COVID-19 management in the urban areas," Sudan said at the meeting.
The officials were also urged to focus on prevention through active screening of high risk and vulnerable population and groups, and effective and sturdy clinical management of the admitted cases to reduce fatality rate.
While many have operationalised 24x7 state control rooms, others could also follow the lead and start such units which shall not only provide assistance to the people regarding various facilities and services for COVID-19 management, but also have a panel of domain experts and doctors to provide round the clock support and mentoring for clinical issues, the statement said.
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Rupee falls 21 paise to 91.29 against US dollar in early trade
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Mumbai (PTI): The rupee depreciated 21 paise to 91.29 against the US dollar on Monday, amid higher crude oil prices, a strong American currency and intense global volatility due to the escalated Middle East tension.
Negative equity market sentiment and massive withdrawal of foreign funds also weighed on the Indian currency, forex traders said.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 91.23 and declined further to 91.29 against the greenback in initial deals, trading 21 paise down from its previous closing level.
On Friday, the rupee lost 17 paise to settle at 91.08 against the dollar.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.22 per cent higher at 97.78.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was up 3.91 per cent at 76.78 per barrel in futures trade.
Analysts said that crude prices soared after the US and Israel launched military strikes against Iran.
In the latest strike, the US and Israel forces pounded targets across Iran on Sunday, dropping massive bombs on the country's ballistic missile sites and wiping out warships. The attack was intensified after the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Experts say that India faces the risk of a sharp increase in its import bill with the rising crude prices in the international market as the country's 85 per cent fuel requirement is met through imports.
On the domestic equity market front, the Sensex tumbled 691.47 points or 0.85 per cent to 80,595.72, while Nifty tanked 240.95 points or 0.96 per cent to 24,937.70 in early trade.
On Friday, foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth Rs 7,536.36 crore, according to exchange data.
According to the government data released on Friday following a revamp of the GDP calculation framework, the country's economic growth has been projected at 7.6 per cent in the currency fiscal.
The latest RBI data released on Friday showed India's forex reserve dropped by USD 2.119 billion to USD 723.608 billion during the week ended February 20. The overall reserves had jumped by USD 8.663 billion to an all-time high of USD 725.727 billion in the previous reporting week.
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