A Science and Technology Empowered Committee for COVID-19 response has been constituted chaired by Prof. Vinod Paul, member, NITI Aayog and Prof. K Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific adviser to the government, said a release issued by the Health Ministry on Tuesday.
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It said this committee would coordinate among science agencies, scientists, industries and regulatory bodies.
“The Committee will work with the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Institute for Science (IISC) to take speedy decisions on research and development keeping in view of the critical need to increase the testing facilities for COVID-19 disease,’’ noted the release.
It said the Health Ministry, in collaboration with the Ministry of Textiles, Pharmaceuticals and the States, is monitoring the requirement of personal protection equipment, masks and ventilators, factories producing essential items and is also coordinating with all the States in rigorously tracing of all contacts to ensure no cases are missed as per our containment strategy.
“We have uploaded training resources on the website for ANMs, ASHAs, Anganwadi workers, AYUSH practitioners, doctors, nurses and other health professionals for field surveillance, supervision, lab testing, clinical management, isolation facility management, intensive care, infection control management, and quarantine facility for the COVID-19 management.
“Two webinars were conducted by the Ministry of Health on March 30 in which 15,000 nurses were trained online,’’ the Ministry added.
