Cabinet Secretary calls for urgent meet over COVID-19

New Delhi, March 24 (IANS) Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba has called for an urgent meeting with all the state Director Generals of Police and Chief Secretaries to chalk out plan on novel coronavirus pandemic.

The meeting will be held at 9 p.m. via video conferencing, said sources.

Aimed to chalk out a proper strategy to deal with crisis being created by the COVID-19 pandemic, Gauba will chair the meeting after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi will end his address to the nation over the issue at 8 p.m. “on vital aspects relating to the menace” of the disease.

In a similar video conference on Sunday, Gauba asked the state governments to identify and earmark hospitals dedicated for management of COVID-19 cases.

He had also directed the state officials to upload the details of both the surveillance measures and the hospitals on the health online portal of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Earlier in the day, Gauba wrote a letter to all the Chief Secretaries of the states asking to further enhance surveillance to trace positive cases of coronavirus to break its chain of transmission across India.

The government noted that there has been an increasing trend in cases being reported in the country.

511 people in India have tested positive for COVID-19 so far, with 12 new cases reported on Tuesday so far while 10 people have died.

Gauba has asked the states to “suitably supplement” state and district surveillance teams as well as the Rapid Response Teams (RRT).

“It is absolutely essential that surveillance and contact tracing of all positive cases is taken up and no suspected or high risk person is left out. It is important that while these tasks are being monitored at the state level by the state health secretaries, this activity is directly and regularly monitored at the district level by the district magistrates, involving the official machinery available in the district,” Gauba said.

–IANS

rak/rt