Timely hospitalisation, more tests in NCR plan
Faridabad, Ggm, Sonepat account for 66% of active cases
NEWDELHI: Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi should coordinate their response to the Covid-19 outbreak by focussing on timely hospital access and using available tools for contact tracing, Union home minister Amit Shah advised its chief ministers on Thursday, stepping up efforts to contain the epidemic in the National Capital Region (NCR).
The matter was discussed at a meeting called by Shah to form a unified strategy in region that is home to close to 30 million people and has some of the country’s biggest industrial clusters, but is splintered into several cities and towns with distinct administrative structures.
Together, the four key cities – Delhi, Gurugram, Noida and Ghaziabad -- account for over 100,000 infections till now, with the Capital alone recording close to 90% of it. Delhi, however, also has close to 67% of the NCR population and the highest per capita testing in the country, which means it is likely to detect more of the outbreak.
The states must focus on saving lives by ensuring Covid-19 infected people who need to get to a hospital are able to do so on time, and that the administrations use platforms such as Aarogya Setu and ITIHAAS, the home minister told the three CMs: Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal, Haryana’s Manohar Lal Khattar and Uttar Pradesh’s Yogi Adityanath.
Separately, the Union minister suggested that UP and Haryana ramp up tests using rapid antigen kits “to help reduce infection transmission rate”, a statement by a spokesperson quoted Shah as telling these leaders.
These kits can be provided by the Union government to UP and Haryana, the minister added, according to tweets by a home ministry spokesperson.
Aarogya Setu logs close contacts and location histories of people using smartphones, ITIHAAS is a location tracking system based on mobile network data – this can identify people who have basic phones as well.
CHANDIGARH: The central government wants Haryana to increase coronavirus testing to a minimum of 140 samples per million per day particularly in the national capital region (NCR) districts of Faridabad, Gurugram and Sonepat and ensure that Faridabad and Gurugram have a sample positivity rate of less than 10%.
The increased testing would include the real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and standard Q Covid-19 antigen detection test.
The state was informed in a meeting held by Union home minister Amit Shah with chief ministers of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi on Thursday to review their Covid-19 response in Delhi-NCR region.
Faridabad, Gurugram and Sonepat abutting Delhi have a sample positivity rate of over 6%, regarded as a critical value as per the parameters of the Union health ministry. As per last week’s statistics, Faridabad had a sample positivity rate of 15.6 % followed by Gurugram at 13.4 % and Sonepat at 6.6%. The sample positivity rate or confirmation rate is the percentage of patients found infected by coronavirus after being tested.
No wonder, the three account for 66 % of the total active and 70% of the cumulative positive cases in the state.
As per the statistics shared on Thursday by the Centre’s empowered group set up to devise medical emergency management plan, Faridabad and Gurugram districts were achieving the testing criteria set by the central government, testing 192 and 482 samples per million per day respectively. Sonepat district though was lagging behind at 95 samples per million per day.
Additional chief secretary (ACS), health, Rajeev Arora said they have already done over 3,000 antigen detection test in Gurugram. “The antigen detection test in Faridabad, Sonepat and Jhajjar started on Thursday,’’
Arora said indicating to the ramped up testing.
As per state health department statistics, 10 districts – Panchkula, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Charkhi Dadri, Hisar, Kaithal, Fatehabad, Jind, Yamunanagar and Sirsa— have a sample positivity rate of less than 2 %, a desirable value as per the Union health ministry. Whereas Bhiwani (5.9%) and Rewari (5.8%) are closing in on the 6% critical value mark, there are seven districts – Ambala, Palwal, Panipat, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Mahendragarh and Nuh where sample positivity rate is between more than 2 % but less than 6 %.
KEEP DEATH RATE BELOW 1%
The state government was also told to make efforts to keep the fatality rate below 1% in the NCR districts. As per the statistics, Faridabad has a case fatality rate of 2.1%, Gurugram has 1.7 %, Sonepat and Jhajjar each have fatality rate of 1.5%.
“The empowered group stressed on assured testing, consultation, ambulance and bed availability to achieve this target,’’ said an official who attended the meeting. Shah also sought adoption of a common strategy for the containment of infection in NCR including Delhi.