The Centre on Thursday said that eight states have reported 90% of the active cases of the coronavirus, while 80% of the active caseload has been reported from 49 districts. These states are Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, the Group of Ministers was informed at its 18th meeting.
Besides, the GoM was told that six states – Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal – account for 86% of the deaths caused by Covid-19 and 32 districts account for 80% of such fatalities. The health ministry said there was a special focus on the regions showing a higher Covid-19 fatality rate.
The meeting, chaired by Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, was joined by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Minister of State for Chemical and Fertilisers and Shipping, Mansukh Mandaviya. Vinod Paul, Member (Health), Niti Aayog attended through video-conferencing.
The Group of Ministers was also briefed on the current status of the coronavirus pandemic in the country in terms of recovery, mortality rates and testing. “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 health ministry said in a statement.
As of Thursday, there were 3,914 facilities across the country with 3,77,737 isolation beds (without intensive care unit support), 39,820 ICU beds and 1,42,415 oxygen-supported beds, along with 20,047 ventilators, the health ministry said. Over 21.3 crore N95 masks, 1.2 crore personal protective equipment kits and 6.12 crore hydroxychloroquine tablets have so far been distributed.
“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 told the GoM. “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.”
It was highlighted that the mental health issues related to the Covid-19 pandemic will be a major part of the communication strategy going forward through discussions in the media, the ministry said. There was also a special focus on dissemination of messages and information in regional languages, it added.
At the 17th meeting of the Group of Ministers on June 27, the Centre had said that eight states have reported 85.5% of the active cases of the coronavirus and 87% of the overall deaths from the disease in the country.
India registered a record single-day increase of 24,879 new cases on Thursday, pushing the country’s tally to 7,67,296. The toll in the country stood at 21,129 with 487 new fatalities. More than 4.76 lakh people have recovered. The Centre continued to deny that there was any community transmission of the coronavirus in India.
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