And adequate arrangements made to deal with any situation in the country
The 17th meeting of the high-level Group of Ministers, GoM was held in New Delhi to review, monitor and evaluate the evolving situation due to COVID-19. The meeting was chaired by Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan through video conferencing. Foreign Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri and Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey attended the meeting. The GoM was briefed on the present status of COVID-19 cases in the country along with recovery and mortality rates, doubling rate, testing mechanism and healthcare infrastructure.
The Health Minister said that more than three lakh people have recovered from the coronavirus. He added that the recovery rate is over 58 per cent in the country. He said, our country is fighting against COVID-19 better than any country in the world. The Minister said, healthcare and testing infrastructure have been ramped up and adequate arrangements have been made to deal with every situation. He informed that about 13 lakh beds are available in the country for Covid patients. He said, India now has one thousand 26 government and private laboratories for testing of corona virus samples and in future the number will be increased. He said, two lakh 20 thousand 479 tests of corona virus samples were conducted by the various laboratories in the country within 24 hours.
In the meeting, it was highlighted that 85.5 percent of active cases and 87 per cent of total deaths are from the eight States-Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Telangana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. It was also informed that 15 central teams consisting of public health experts, epidemiologists, clinicians and a Joint Secretary level officer have been deployed to provide technical support to the States. A Central team is currently visiting Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana to strengthen ongoing efforts for management of COVID-19. The GoM was also briefed about the utility of ITIHAS and Aarogya Setu App in contact tracing and identification of potential hotspot areas which have been used by State Governments in preparing the COVID-19 containment strategy.
The Group of Ministers was also informed that the key focus areas to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic are strict containment measures and surveillance, utilization of full testing capacity, monitoring of co-morbid and elderly population, predicting emerging hotspots, ensuring seamless patient admission processes, fatality mitigation by effective clinical management and infrastructure preparedness.
GoM was also apprised about the growing medical infrastructure in the country. It was informed that the COVID related health infrastructure has been strengthened in the country with the availability of one thousand 39 dedicated COVID hospitals having one lakh 76 thousand 275 isolation beds, 22 thousand 940 ICU beds and 77 thousand 268 oxygen supported beds. Two thousand 398 dedicated COVID Health Centres having one lakh 39 thousand 483 Isolation beds, 11 thousand 539 ICU beds and 51 thousand 321 oxygen supported beds have also been operationalised. In addition, eight thousand 958 COVID Care Centres with 8 lakh 10 thousand 621 beds are now available to combat COVID-19 in the country. The Centre has also provided more than 185 lakh N95 masks and 116 lakh Personal Protective Equipments to the States, Union Territories and Central Institutions.
In a detailed presentation by the Chairman of the Empowered Group-10, the GoM was briefed that the stipulated redressal time on COVID-19 public grievances was brought down from the usual 60 days to three days. During the period from 30th March to 24th June, the Empowered Group disposed of 93.84 per cent of the 77 thousand 307 grievances received for Central Ministries and 63.11 per cent of the 53 thousand 130 grievances received pertaining to the State governments.
