Maharashtra, Punjab, Chhattisgarh: Centre points out gaps in Covid-19 containment strategy

Covid situation in Maharashtra, Punjab and Chhattisgarh: The Central government on Sunday wrote to Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Punjab highlighting the feedback shared by the 50 high-level public health teams deployed in these states which have been witnessing a spike in coronavirus (Covid-19) cases. It stated that these states needed to ramp up measures to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. Also Read | Punjabi actor Satish Kaul dies due to COVID-19 Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan requested the health secretaries of these states to implement the suggestions shared by the teams. The public health teams highlighted issues like testing, hospital infrastructure, containment operations, vaccination progress and Covid-19 appropriate behaviour. Covid situation in Maharashtra The central teams reported that testing capacities in Satara, Bhandara, Palghar, Amrawati, Jalna, Nanded, Buldhana and Latur were delaying reporting of test results. It also stated that the containment operations in Satara, Sangli and Aurangabad were not up to the standard. Meanwhile, the contact tracing operations in Buldhana, Satara, Aurangabad and Nanded were ‘suboptimal.’ Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Nagpur and Nandurbar reported high occupancy of hospital beds. Aurangabad, Nandurabar, Yawatmal, Satara, Palghar, Jalgoan and Jalna districts reported shortage of healthcare workers. Also Read | Farm laws are in farmers’ interest: Narendra Singh Tomar Covid situation in Chhattisgarh Korba, Durg and Balod were facing shortage of RT-PCR testing facilities and were witnessing high hospital bed occupancy rates. All ICU beds here were occupied. Durg, Jashpur and Rajnandangaon have also reported a shortage of healthcare workers while the central team highlighted the lack of Covid-19 appropriate behaviour in Rajnandangaon. Covid situation in Punjab The health teams deployed in Punjab stated that Patiala and Ludhiana were vaccinating people at a slower pace. These districts were lagging behind in terms of contact tracing while the rate of testing in Patiala has also dropped. The teams stated that SAS Nagar and Rupnagar have no dedicated Covid-19 hospital and no dedicated RT-PCR testing laboratory. Rupnagar’s hospitals are facing a shortage in manpower which is why the ventilators in these hospitals were not being optimally utilised. Patiala and SAS Nagar have been witnessing a shortage in terms of healthcare workers. The Centre asked the district administration to address hospital infrastructure in SAS Nagar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana as hospital bed occupancy rates in these districts continue to rise due to the spike in the number of coronavirus cases. Click here to follow PTC News on Twitter -PTC New