Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan and Union Foreign Minister Dr S Jaishankar at the GoM meeting on Saturday. (Source: Twitter/@drharshvardhan)
The high-level Group of Ministers (GoM) on Saturday held its seventeenth meeting on the current status of Covid-19 cases in the country. It was highlighted that eight states — Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Telangana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal — contribute 85.5 per cent of the active caseload and 87 per cent of the total deaths in India.
The meeting was chaired by Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan and included Union Foreign Minister Dr S Jaishankar, Union Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep S Puri and Minister of State, Health and Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey. Members were briefed about recovery and mortality rates, doubling rate, ramped-up testing and strengthened healthcare infrastructure in various states.
The GoM was informed that the key focus areas are strict containment measures and surveillance; utilising full testing capacity; focus on monitoring of co-morbid and elderly population; predicting emerging hotspots; leveraging digital tools such as Aarogya Setu; ensuring seamless patient admission processes; fatality mitigation by effective clinical management; focus on infrastructure preparedness (critical care beds, oxygen, ventilators and logistics).
“The GoM was also informed that, as on date, 15 central teams consisting of public health experts/epidemiologists/clinicians and a senior Joint Secretary-level have been deployed to provide technical support to the states. Another central team is currently visiting Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana to strengthen ongoing efforts for management of Covid-19,” the government said.
During the meeting, Dr Balram Bhargava, DG (ICMR), gave a detailed presentation on the testing strategy of ICMR. “He explained the serological survey as well as the increasing capacity for enhanced per day testing through various tests,” the government said.
In a detailed presentation by K Shivaji, chairman of the Empowered Group-10, the GoM was briefed that the stipulated redressal time on Covid-19 public grievances was brought down from the usual 60 days for normal public grievances to three days to prioritise their quick disposal.