Mansukh Mandaviya writes to Kerala CM, flags low contact tracing, strain on health infra

WITH KERALA contributing over 40 per cent of the active Covid cases in the country, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya Wednesday flagged eight specific concerns to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on the basis of the findings of a central experts’ team that visited the state last week.

Mandaviya wrote to Chief Minister Vijayan on the concerns raised by the central team that visited eight districts in the state, specifically communicating that “comprehensive contact tracing” of all positive cases was “very low”, which is leading to the spread of virus.

“The team found continued high number of Covid cases being reported from all districts of the state and have highlighted that stringent containment measures are needed to control the spread of infection. The ongoing ABCD classification made in the state has not yielded desired results and the technical guidance from the Government of India on defining containment zones and active cases within such zones is crucial for controlling high case positivity,” Mandaviya wrote.

He said the central team has “highlighted lack of follow up of home-isolated cases”, where a large number of family members are getting affected through intra-house transmission.

He wrote: “…home isolation of cases may be allowed only as per protocol and all such cases may be monitored daily… any restrictions once imposed may be for a period of epidemiological significance, that is, at least 14 days and maybe effectively monitored.”

Mandaviya also highlighted that the “health infrastructure in certain districts is under strain” due to the high number of cases, “particularly high occupation of oxygen and ICU beds”.

“Hence urgent action is needed to upgrade health infrastructure in those districts,” he wrote.

Mandaviya’s observation came after the central team in its interim report highlighted that bed occupancy rate in Kollam district “was quite high” with nearly 80 per cent of oxygen bed occupied in government centres.