A Central team deployed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to help the State in the management of COVID-19 visited Alappuzha and reviewed the pandemic situation in the district on Saturday.
The five-member team comprising Sujeet Singh, Director, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC); Jain S.K., Adviser, NCDC, Pranay Verma, Deputy Director, NCDC; Ruchi Jain, a public health specialist; and Binoy S. Babu, Assistant Director, Directorate of Health Services, Kerala, interacted with District Collector A. Alexander and district health officials.
The team, which attended a meeting of health officials, stressed the need to strengthen measures to tackle the spread of the disease in areas with a high number of cases within containment zones. The team suggested measures to bring down the test positivity rate in areas where it remained high.
The Centre deployed multidisciplinary teams following a spike in COVID-19 cases in the State.
Officials said the teams were specifically looking at testing, contact tracing, including surveillance and containment operations, availability of hospital beds, sufficient logistics, including ambulances, hospital-wise case fatality analysis, and progress of COVID-19 vaccination drive, in various districts.
After visiting other districts, the team will submit a report to the State government.
R.V. Ramlal, superintendent, Government Medical College Hospital (MCH) Alappuzha; Sairu Philip, vice principal, Government Medical College, Alappuzha; Anu Varghese, Deputy Medical Officer, Alappuzha; Asha C. Abraham, Deputy Collector (disaster management); T.K. Suma and others attended the review meeting.
Meanwhile, the Alappuzha district administration has come up with a campaign titled ‘war against waves’ to tackle the spread of COVID-19. The seven-day campaign includes disinfecting houses, awareness classes for anganwadi, school and college students, putting in place effective measures in offices, shops, and other establishments for breaking the chain of transmission of COVID-19, awareness meetings, and so on. The campaign will begin on Sunday with a disinfection drive.
