Cabinet Secretary holds review meeting on COVID-19

PIB News Update: Cabinet Secretary held a review meeting through video conference, with the Secretaries of concerned Ministries, Chief Secretaries and Health Secretaries of the States to review and assess action taken for containment of COVID-19.

The travel restrictions imposed from yesterday were reviewed and shared with the States. States were asked to monitor the airport management in States in coordination with the concerned Airport Public Health Officers (APHOs)and Airport Managers so that effective screening takes place.

Guidelines on cluster management of COVID-19 have been communicated to the States two days ago. The operationalisation of the guidelines was emphasised upon and the Chief Secretaries were requested to review the same. The States were requested to hold coordination meetings with the related Ministries and arrive at the following:

1. Possible quarantine facilities in the States
2. Augment isolation wards and include facilities of the Labour Dept, armed forces, paramilitary forces, medical colleges and PSUs within their jurisdiction.
3. It was also decided that District Collectors shall now be involved in cluster management in their district. They should hold coordination meetings and ensure that teams at the district, block and village levels are made for cluster management as per the SOPs communicated.
4. Hold meetings with hospital associations to identify isolation wards.
5. MoHFW is working with FICCI to work out detailed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for COVID-19management in private hospitals.
6. It was also informed that apart from the three COVID-19 positive cases from Kerala, who have recovered, three (3) more cases have been confirmed positive for COVID-19 and six (6) have heavy viral load and are awaiting confirmation. All are in isolation and are stable.
7. Also, 24 persons, including 21 Italian tourists and three Indians (bus driver, conductor and tourist guide), who had contact with the Italian national found confirmed as COVID-19 positive in Jaipur, have been shifted to the ITBP facility for testing. Depending on the result, future course of action will be taken.