Modi spoke about need for constant genome sequencing to monitor emergence of mutants
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Friday, chaired a high-level meeting to review the COVID-19 situation in the country and stressed the need to ensure adequate testing.
The prime minister reviewed the current scenario of the pandemic, preparedness of the health systems, availability of medical oxygen and matters relating to production, supply and distribution of COVID-19 vaccine.
It was pointed out during the meeting that despite the reduction in weekly positivity rate—it was less than three per cent for 10th consecutive week—there is no room for complacency as Kerala and Maharashtra continues to report high number of cases.
The PM reviewed the status of augmentation of bed capacity for paediatric care and augmentation of facilities supported under ‘COVID Emergency Response Package II’. It was also discussed that states have been advised to redesign and orient primary care and block level health infrastructure in these areas to manage the situation in rural areas. Modi was briefed about the increase in isolation beds, oxygen beds, ICU beds and paediatric ICUs and ventilators. A significant number of ICU beds and oxygen beds will be further added in the coming months, the officials said.
The PM was informed about the concentration of cases in a few geographies, districts with high test positivity as well as the week on week test positivity rate in the country.
Modi spoke about the need for constant genome sequencing to monitor emergence of mutants.
The officers told the prime minister that INSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium) now consists of 28 labs, distributed across the country. The lab network is also linked with a hospital network for clinical correlation. Sewage sampling is also being done for genomic surveillance, the PM was told.
The prime minister said the entire ecosystem to ensure increased oxygen availability, including oxygen concentrators, cylinders and PSA plants, need to be rapidly augmented. Efforts are also on to install 961 liquid medical oxygen storage tanks and 1,450 medical gas pipeline systems with an aim to support at least one such unit per district.
The ambulance network is also being augmented to ensure at least one ambulance per block.
On vaccines, PM was apprised that around 58 per cent of India’s adult population has received the first dose and around 18 per cent the second dose.
