Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said that learning from the fight against COVID-19 should be used to tackle the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus.
Mandaviya held a virtual meeting with state health ministers and principal secretaries and additional chief secretaries of states and UTs to review public health preparedness for COVID-19 and vaccination progress.
“We have to put up a strong fight against COVID earlier and this learning must be used to re-focus on efforts against Omicron variant,” he said at the meeting.
The meeting was held in view of the rising cases of the Omicron variant and the recent decisions to roll-out vaccination for the age group 15-18 years and precautionary dose for identified vulnerable categories.
Stressing on the need to ensure smooth implementation of new vaccination guidelines, states and UTs were advised to ensure orientation of vaccinators and vaccination team members for vaccination of 15-18 years old and identification of dedicated session sites for their vaccination.
The vaccination of children aged between 15 to 18 years will be rolled out on Monday.
Mandaviya also asked states and UTs to take necessary measures, including setting up separate vaccination centres, to avoid mixing-up of COVID-19 vaccines during administration of shots to those in 15-18 age group.
States, UTs advised to ramp up infrastructure to manage high surge
The Union Health Minister noted at the very outset that globally, countries are experiencing three to four times the surge in COVID-19 cases in comparison to their earlier peaks. The Omicron variant being highly transmissible, a high surge in the case can overwhelm the medical system.
He advised states and UTs to leave no stone unturned in ramping up infrastructure to manage a high surge so that “India escapes unscathed from this episode of COVID-19”.
Mandaviya said in this regard that irrespective of the COVID variants, measures for preparedness and protection remain the same. He urged states to re-invigorate their teams to work at the ground level and strengthen monitoring and containment mechanisms.
This was followed by a comprehensive and detailed discussion on various aspects of COVID management including ramping up of hospital infrastructure; increased testing; stringent restrictive measures for breaking the chain of transmission; and stress on COVID-appropriate behaviour among the masses.
States were also advised to prepare a weekly plan to catch up and exceed the average national vaccination coverage and review the implementation of this plan on a daily basis with special emphasis in five poll-bound states of Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Manipur.
