Bengaluru: Eight states, including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Karnataka and Telangana, account for around 90 per cent of the active COVID-19 cases in the country and 80 per cent of the active cases have been reported from 49 districts, the Group of Ministers on COVID-19 was informed on Thursday.
Besides, the ministers were told that six states Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal account for 86 per cent of the deaths caused by COVID-19 and 32 districts account for 80 per cent of such fatalities, the Union health ministry said.
The Ministers, which held its 18th meeting under the chairpersonship of Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday, was informed that there was a special focus on the regions showing a higher COVID-19 fatality rate, the ministry said.
The Group of Ministers was also briefed on the current COVID-19 status in India. “A global comparison between the five most-affected countries clearly depicted that India has one of the lowest numbers of cases per million (538) and deaths per million (15), compared to the global average of 1,453 and 68.7 respectively,” the ministry said in a statement.
Within the country, eight states Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat account for around 90 per cent of the active coronavirus cases, it said.
As regards the COVID-19 healthcare infrastructure in India, the Group of Ministers was informed that as on Thursday, there were 3,914 facilities across the country with 3,77,737 isolation beds (without ICU support), 39,820 ICU beds and 1,42,415 oxygen-supported beds, along with 20,047 ventilators.
Over 21.3 crore N95 masks, 1.2 crore personal protective equipment (PPE) kits and 6.12 crore hydroxychloroquine tablets have so far been distributed, the GoM was told.
“As we move forward, our focus shall be on the management of COVID-19 through strict containment measures and surveillance, utilising the full testing capacity, monitoring of the co-morbid and elderly population, predicting the emerging hotspots, leveraging digital tools such as Aarogya Setu, ensuring seamless patient admission processes and infrastructure preparedness (critical-care beds, oxygen, ventilators and logistics),” Vardhan said.
“Along with the states and Union territories, our aim is to reduce and keep the case fatality rate low by early identification and effective clinical management,” he was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the ministry. During Unlock 2.0, the future steps would include a sharp focus on containment and surveillance, including demarcation of containment zones and notifying such areas on the health ministry website.
It includes strict perimeter control with only essential activities allowed, intensive contact-tracing, house-to-house search or surveillance and buffer zones to be identified outside the containment zones.
Dr Sujeet K Singh, Director, National Centre for Disease Control, presented a detailed report on the surveillance efforts undertaken in India during the pandemic, the ministry said.
India saw a record single-day surge of 24,879 coronavirus cases on Thursday, which pushed the country’s COVID-19 tally to 7,67,296, while the death toll due to the disease climbed to 21,129 with 487 new fatalities, according to the health ministry data updated at 9am.
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