M. Ramadass former MP has urged the government to immediately constitute a State-level coordination committee to launch preventive and curative steps without being obsessed with another lockdown to effectively reverse the alarming coronavirus situation.

In a statement, Mr. Ramadass suggested that the panel should be presided by the Lt. Governor and should include the Cabinet, Chief Secretary, other Secretaries, a member from the Disaster Management committee and the chief of the present medical team.

Pointing to the steep exponential rise in COVID 19 cases and death toll in recent days, Mr. Ramadass said the Union Territory, which remained free from the pandemic in the initial three months, was now a hotspot caused by various factors. These reasons included failure to exercise strict vigil on the entry of people from other States and testing them medically at the borders from June 1, non-existence of well thought out comprehensive and integrated micro level plan to mitigate the virus, and inconsistency in the measures announced (announcing lockdown and proposing the entry of tourists).

He also cited inadequacy of medical infrastructure and unpreparedness of the government, lack of coordination of measures and implementation at all levels and violation of social norms by the people in crowded places have contributed to the upsurge in cases in recent weeks.

Mr. Ramadass suggested that the committee should take all decisions regarding coronavirus and they should be implemented by the Secretaries, which would be reviewed every week. The committee should immediately draw up a short run plan containing both preventive and curative measures. Three experts in Virology drawn from the National Institute of Virology, Pune, AIIMS, New Delhi and Jipmer should be added to the existing medical team whose advice and inputs should be the quintessence of future health plan of the government, he said.

He also suggested consulting with the expertise in Chennai and strictly monitoring all the borders of the Union Territory to certify the entry of symptom-free outsiders into the territory after careful medical examination and recommend the symptomatic persons for immediate testing and admitting the positive persons in the hospital.

Testing the entire population is a necessary and sufficient condition for freeing the territory from the clutches of this pandemic within the next one month. He also suggested setting up eight testing centres at Puducherry and one centre each at the remaining regions and a plasma bank and enhancing health outlay by another ₹100 crore for containment of COVID-19.