CS underscores six focus areas for districts...

CHENNAI: Reviewing the Covid situation with District Collectors on Friday through video conferencing from Chennai, Chief Secretary K Shanmugam underscored the importance of six focus areas for containing the spread of infection in the coming days.

The meeting assumes significance as the number of persons infected by this virus has been going up in many districts and the present phase of lockdown comes to an end within a week. The focus areas as mentioned by the Chief Secretary are: Focus on districts where cases are rising, focus on comorbid cases to decrease death rate, fever clinics, wholesale markets and industries to control mass spread, monitoring containment zones and increasing sample testing.

‘Don’t miss any death’
Taking a serious view of the inclusion of 444 unaccounted deaths due to Covid two days ago, Shanmugam directed all Collectors to ensure that there is no omission of Covid deaths in future. “District Collectors should coordinate and ensure that Covid death reports are properly reconciled on daily basis in each district without any omission, in consultation with local bodies and ensure its submission to the State Health Department for its eventual notification,” the Chief Secretary said in his letter to the Collectors.

Shanmugam said the Collectors should verify the daily death report received from all government and private hospitals and compare with local bodies’ records maintained for cremation or burial to ensure that there are no omissions while reporting Covid deaths in future. The government has constituted a State-level committee to continuously scrutinise and reconcile Covid death reports on a weekly basis to avoid omission in the future.