Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, following a COVID-19 review meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and other senior government officials, reiterated the need to observe personal hygiene and social discipline in public places while appreciating the manner in which the pandemic has been “contained” in Delhi.
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The Prime Minister, meanwhile, in his meeting which took stock of the ongoing efforts to contain the infections, said that priority during the pandemic is being given to “close monitoring and guiding the containment works in regions where the infection rate is high”.
Stating that there is no room for complacency in this regard, he said that awareness about COVID-19 should be disseminated widely and that there should be a continuous emphasis on preventing the spread of the infection.
He also appreciated the efforts of the Centre, State and local authorities in containing the pandemic situation in Delhi, and directed that a similar approach should be adopted with other State governments in containing the COVID-19 pandemic in the entire National Capital Region (NCR) area.
India on Saturday recorded the cure and discharge of a total of 5,15,385 COVID-19 patients so far.
“There are 2,83,407 active cases and all are under medical supervision either at the Central and State government hospitals for severe cases, and in home isolation for pre-symptomatic patients and those showing moderate symptoms,” said the Ministry.
Testing bolstered
It noted that the recent policy changes, including allowing all registered medical practitioners to recommend testing for COVID-19 and the introduction of Rapid Antigen Point of Care testing along with RT-PCR (Real Time Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction) has substantially bolstered the COVID-19 tests in the country.
“So far, 1,13,07,002 samples have been tested through the collective public and private labs under Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) diagnostic network of 1,180 labs in the country. While those in the public sector have increased to 841 labs, the number of private labs has also been strengthened to a total of 339,” said ICMR.
2,82,511 samples were tested on Friday and currently, India’s Test per Million (TPM) stands at 8,193.
“The States as well as the medical college hospitals designated as Centres of Excellence were reminded by ICMR and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) that indiscriminate use of ‘investigational therapies’ may cause more harm than good,’’ noted the Health Ministry.
It added that the ICMR has strongly recommended that the focus of COVID-19 clinical management should continue to remain on oxygen therapy (including high flow nasal oxygen), steroids (which are widely available and inexpensive), appropriate and timely administration of anti-coagulants and high quality supportive care, including mental health counselling for patients and families, and palliation of symptoms.
‘Positive results’
“The approach for treatment of COVID-19 is largely based on asymptomatic and supportive care, since there is no cure as yet. Maintaining good hydration is also essential. For mild cases, which are nearly 80% of the total cases, Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has been recommended. The standard of care treatment strategies have shown to yield positive results,” it added.
