Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla along with Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary chaired a high-level meeting on Friday to review the Covid-19 status in Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh. The public health measures taken for containment and management of Covid-19 by the State health authorities were also examined. V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, Dr Balram Bhargava, DG ICMR, Dr (Prof) Sunil Kumar, DGHS were also present in the meeting along with Chief Secretaries, DG (police), and Health Secretaries of both the States.
Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh along with Maharashtra are the only three States in the country which have more than one lakh active cases.
‘5-fold strategy’
After the review meeting, the secretary emphasized the 5-fold strategy to tackle the recent surge. He urged to significantly increase testing in all districts with a minimum of 70 per cent RT-PCR tests and use of rapid antigen tests as screening tests in densely populated areas as well as areas where fresh clusters are emerging.
In a bid to break the chain of transmission, it was emphasized in the meeting to ramp up effective and timely tracing, containment and surveillance activities. Effectively follow the protocol of clinical care, treatment and supported home/facility care, along with strict enforcement of Covid-19 safe behaviour, he said. “Time-bound plan of 100 per cent vaccination of eligible population groups, especially in the high focus districts,” he added.