The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has raised some main considerations concerning the fast upsurge of Covid-19 instances in Punjab. On the idea of inputs being acquired by the Centre from 9 groups presently visiting 9 districts of Punjab to evaluate the scenario, their main considerations are — contract tracing, scarcity of manpower, lack of Covid care centres, devoted hospitals in some districts, sluggish tempo of vaccination amongst individuals aged above 45 years (with co-morbidities) and people above 60 years and lack of Covid-appropriate behaviour.In a letter dated April 10 to Punjab Health Secretary Hussan Lal, secretary of the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare Rajesh Bhushan has talked about that the groups have been offering suggestions every day to the state as properly central authorities.
Shortage of manpower
“I would like to highlight the following areas of concern as noted by the central team that there is a need to enhance focus on contact tracing in Patiala and Ludhiana. Contact tracing and surveillance efforts in SAS Nagar (Mohali) are being hampered due to shortage of manpower. Additional manpower must be deployed for contact tracing on a priority basis,” Bhushan said, including that low charges of testing have been reported from Patiala and as reported by the staff, there is no such thing as a RT-PCR testing laboratory in Rupnagar.
The letter additional says that there is no such thing as a devoted Covid Hospital in SAS Nagar and Rupnagar districts, and sufferers are being referred to neighboring districts or Chandigarh. Similarly, the staff has reported lack of any Covid care centre/devoted Covid hospital in Rupnagar district. Hospital mattress occupancy charges in SAS Nagar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana are on the upper facet and appropriate preparations for a similar should be undertaken by the district well being authorities with enough lead time to organize for any surge in instances, it mentioned.
Procurement of ventilators
Teams have additionally reported points with procurement of ventilators for correct case administration in SBS Nagar (Nawanshahr). ln Rupnagar, though ventilators can be found, these usually are not being optimally utilised resulting from scarcity of healthcare workforce, significantly docs and nurses. Contractual hiring of healthcare staff would go a great distance in addressing this.
Shortage of healthcare workforce has been reported from Patiala, SAS Nagar and Rupnagar additionally. The groups that visited Patiala and Ludhiana have reported a sluggish tempo of vaccination amongst individuals 45 years (with co-morbidities) and people above 60 years. This additionally must be addressed on precedence, the ministry has mentioned.
Covid-appropriate behaviour
Teams have additionally reported lack of Covid-appropriate behaviour by the group and have urged stricter floor stage enforcement for a similar by district authorities.
The ministry had lately deployed central groups to essentially the most affected districts. These groups have been actively participating with state governments in coordinating and collaborating efforts in the direction of preparedness and response to the pandemic, actively working along with district administrations to grasp the unfold of Covid-19, present help and supervision and advocate workable options to curb the unfold. These groups have been tasked to work alongwith district well being authorities on Covid-19 preparedness and response with deal with testing, contact tracing and containment operations, Covid-appropriate behaviour and its enforcement, hospital infrastructure and availability of logistic and vaccination progress and many others.
The letter additional mentioned that it’s requested that these options may be examined and additional verified…and appropriate corrective actions as warranted could also be taken by the state/district administration. Union authorities has additionally taken observe of points associated to vaccine availability and required motion to enhance the provides based mostly on accessible inventory, reads the letter.
In a quick abstract of key efficiency indicators, Mohali and Jalandhar districts are on the high with ventilators occupancy of 30 and 27.45 per cent, respectively. Jalandhar additionally tops with oxygen help beds with 1,420 beds adopted by Ludhiana with 874 beds. Jalandhar additionally owns the very best variety of devoted ambulances, 139, for Covid administration. Meanwhile, share of lively instances beneath house isolation within the district included 82.3 per cent in Jalandhar, 88.55 per cent in Nawanshahr and 77.82 per cent in Hoshiarpur.
Almost all districts reported affirmation percentages above 5 per cent.