New Delhi: Amid a spike in COVID-19 cases, mock drills to take stock of hospital preparedness were held in several public and private facilities across the country on Monday, with Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya visiting the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital here to review the measures taken to combat the disease.
India logged 5,880 fresh cases, while active cases increased to 35,199. The country’s Covid death toll has reached 5,30,979 with 14 latest fatalities, according to the health ministry data updated on Monday.
While visiting the Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital, Mandaviya interacted with the heads of departments and the staff. He also spent time with doctors, nurses, heads of security and sanitation services, listening to their suggestions.
The suggestions revolved around quality clinical practices, measures for infection control, hospital management, sanitation processes and patient-centric provisions.
“A huge response was seen nationwide where ministers and senior officials reviewed the preparations and capacities of hospitals and facilities,” the health ministry said.
In a review meeting held on April 7, the health minister had urged state health ministers to visit hospitals and oversee the mock drills on April 10 and 11.
In the meeting with state health ministers, and principal and additional chief secretaries held virtually, Mandaviya had stressed on identifying emergency hotspots by monitoring trends of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) cases, ramping up testing and vaccination, and ensuring readiness of hospital infrastructure.
Besides enhancing genome sequencing and ramping up whole genome sequencing of positive samples, he had also laid stress on creating awareness about following Covid-appropriate behaviour.
During the meeting, states and Union territories were informed that the World Health Organisation (WHO) was closely tracking a variant of interest (VOI), XBB.1.5, and six other variants (BQ.1, BA.2.75, CH.1.1, XBB, XBF and XBB.1.16).
It was highlighted that while Omicron and its sublineages 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 ministry had said in a statement.
During the meeting, it was observed that 23 states and Union territories have testing rates that are lower than the current national average of 100 tests per million people.
Mandaviya had said that irrespective of the new variants, the five-fold strategy of ‘Test-Track-Treat-Vaccinate and adherence to Covid-Appropriate Behaviour’ continued to remain the tested strategy for Covid management.
The states/Union territories were also requested to expeditiously increase the rate of testing and increase the share of RT-PCR in tests.

Press Trust of India