India continued to prep up its health infrastructure in view of a worrying rise in Covid cases across some parts of the world, especially China. Mock drills were carried out across hospitals in the country to check preparedness in case of a rise in infections.
Daily infections in the country were recorded at 157, with the daily positivity rate at 0.31 per cent. India’s active case load was 3,421 on Tuesday morning, the Union Health Ministry data showed.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, who participated in the mock drills, visited Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi to review the preparation being taken up to ensure readiness of hospital infrastructure.
Mandaviya spent an hour with the heads of various departments, doctors, nurses, and took up issues covering clinical practices, infection control measures, sanitation processes and patient-centered high quality healthcare provisions.
“Covid cases are rising all over the world and India might witness a spike in cases, too. Hence, it is important that the entire infrastructure in terms of equipment, processes and human resources are at a state of operational readiness,” he stated.
At Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the Union Minister of State for Health, Bharati Pravin Pawar, held meetings with senior officials as she reviewed the UT’s preparedness to deal with a spurt in Covid cases. Pawar also visited Swaraj Dweep, earlier known as Havelock Island, and also one of the major tourist destinations, to hold similar meetings with the health officials and oversee mock drills.
Similar drills were carried out across other States, too, including Rajasthan, Gujarat, Delhi, Maharashtra , West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh, among others.
For instance, in Rajasthan, infrastructure arrangements like OPD and IPD, oxygen generation plants, functioning of ventilators and oxygen concentrators, and availability of ICU beds and medicines were checked.
In Gujarat, one lakh beds and 15,000 ICUs with ventilators are ready to be converted for the use of Covid patients if needed.
Health officials in West Bengal said mock drills will be carried out at the state government level over the next two to three days.