Nationwide mock drills to check Covid preparedness to start today: 10 points
2 min read . Updated: 10 Apr 2023, 09:48 AM IST
Premium- Union Health Minister laid emphasis on ramping up testing and vaccination against the virus and ensuring the readiness of hospital infrastructure
With the cases of Covid-19 rising rapidly in the country, the Union Health Ministry has decided to conduct a nationwide mock drill on 10 and 11 April to check the preparedness of both public and private health facilities to deal with booming cases of the virus.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will oversee the mock drills in AIIMS, Jhajjar and he requested the state health ministers to oversee the Covid mock drills in the respective states.
Nationwide mock drills to check Covid-19 preparedness:
In a review meeting on 7 April, Mandaviya asked the state health ministers to review the district administration's and health officials' preparedness on 8 and 9 April.
During the meeting, the health minister stressed the need to identify emergency hotspots by monitoring trends of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) cases.
The minister further laid emphasis on ramping up testing and vaccination against the virus and ensuring the readiness of hospital infrastructure. Mandaviya also stressed increasing awareness around Covid appropriate behavior.
The country has seen a sudden increase in the cases of the Covid-19 virus and as of 9 April, the active cases of the virus in the country have crossed 32,000.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is closely tracking a variant of interest (VOI), XBB.1.5, and six other variants are under monitoring (BQ.1, BA.2.75, CH.1.1, XBB, XBF, and XBB.1.16).
The prevalence of XBB.1.16 has witnessed a jump from 21.6% in February to 35.8% in March, but the level of hospitalization or mortality has not seen a significant change, a statement from the health ministry informed.
Omicron and its sub-variants remain the most prevalent among the rising cases and for now don't have disease severity or immune escape capabilities.
During the review meeting, Mandaviya also observed that the average test per million of 23 states is below the national average.
States and union territories were requested to increase the number of tests and also focus of improving the rate of RT-PCR tests.
The health minister said that the five-fold strategy of 'Test-Track-Treat-Vaccinate and adherence to Covid-Appropriate Behaviour' continues to remain in place for Covid management irrespective of the discovery of new variants.