DELHI: In its latest health briefing, MoHFW stated that the total number of people infected with COVID-19 reaches 35,043 with 25,007 people under active medical supervision. There are 1,993 new cases, 67 deaths, 564 recoveries reported in the last 24 hours. With a total of 8,888 recovered patients, the recovery rate in India stands at 25.37%.
With an emphasis on simple actions such as hand hygiene, respiratory hygiene, environmental hygiene and physical distancing in preventing the spread of this disease. It added that a person wearing a mask should not be seen as a sick person but as a person who is considerate to his society.
The Ministry of Health ordered the States and district administration to ensure through focused efforts that red and orange zone districts, break the chain of transmission through effective and stringent containment measures.
Stringent perimeter control, active search for cases through house to house surveillance by special teams , testing of all cases as per sampling guidelines & proper clinical management of all confirmed cases to be done in containment zones.
The health ministry said that in urban areas, residential colony, mohallas, municipal wards or police station area, municipal zones or towns
while in rural areas, a village, cluster of villages or a group of police stations, gram panchayats, block etc. can be declared as Containment zones.
It further said that there will be a new normal. We need to be careful, aware and alert. Even outside the containment zones, we have to follow all Government guidelines. We need to consciously change our approach.
It said that a buffer zone should be demarcated around the containment zones. Extensive surveillance for cases through monitoring ILI/SARI cases in health facilities should be done in buffer zones.
The health ministry appreciated the Central Armed Police Forces for playing a pivotal role in the nation’s fight against COVID-19, in enforcing lockdown measures, provisions of beds in hospitals under the Forces, distribution of masks and PPE and promoting public awareness
Shri P D Vaghela, the Chairman, Empowered Group 3, in his presentation on “Progress in Production and Procurement of Medical Supplies”, in the nation’s fight against COVID-19 said that
India took the challenge posed by the pandemic as an opportunity to create supply chains and domestic manufacturing capacity for PPEs, by helping capacity expansion, identification of new manufacturers and handholding.
He further said that with adequate production of oxygen, we have enough oxygen cylinders in India.
More than 4 lakh oxygen cylinders are available which is sufficient for today’s requirements, orders for more than 1 lakh oxygen cylinders have been placed, industrial oxygen too is being converted into medical oxygen.
He also cited that against projected demand of 2 crore PPEs, we have already ordered more than 2.2 crore. From no domestic manufacturers earlier, we now have 111 indigenous manufacturers, from whom orders for more than 1.4 crore PPEs have been placed. 9 new labs for PPE testing have been added in 15 days.
“DRDO has developed 3 types of new PU coated nylon and have transferred the technology to domestic manufacturers.” said Chairman, Empowered Group 3 in his presentation.
He further added that from a production capacity of around 3,300 PPEs per day in March end, in one month, we have increased our capacity to 1.8 lakh PPEs per day, soon it will be above 2 lakh per day.