Nationwide mock drill in hospitals from today as Covid cases rise

Amid the rising Covid cases in the country, the ministry of health has announced two-day nationwide mock drills to assess hospital preparedness. Both public and private facilities are set to take part in the drills.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will oversee the drill at All India Institute Of Medical Science (AIIMS) in Haryana's Jhajjar.

In a review meeting held last week, Mandaviya had asked state health ministers to stay alert and check the preparedness of health facilities. He had also advised them to review the preparedness with district administrations and health officials on April 8 and 9.

During the meeting, the health minister stressed the need to identify emergency hotspots by monitoring trends of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) cases.

Besides enhancing genome sequencing and ramping up whole genome sequencing of positive samples, he had emphasised creating awareness about following Covid-appropriate behaviour.

During the meeting, states and union territories were informed that currently the World Health Organisation (WHO) is closely tracking a variant of interest (VOI), XBB.1.5, and six other variants are under monitoring (BQ.1, BA.2.75, CH.1.1, XBB, XBF and XBB.1.16), a health ministry statement had said.

It was highlighted that while Omicron and its sub-lineages continue to be the predominant variants, most of the assigned variants have little or no significant transmissibility, disease severity or immune escape.

The prevalence of XBB.1.16 increased from 21.6 per cent in February to 35.8 per cent in March. However, no evidence of an increase in hospitalisation or mortality has been reported, the statement said.

During the meeting, it was observed that 23 states and union territories had average tests per million below the national average.

Mandaviya had said that irrespective of the new variants, the five-fold strategy of 'Test-Track-Treat-Vaccinate and adherence to Covid-Appropriate Behaviour' continues to remain the tested strategy for Covid management.

States and union territories were also requested to expeditiously increase the rate of testing from 100 tests per million as on the week ending April 7. They were further advised to increase the share of RT-PCR in tests.