One major private hospital in a block to be a COVID-19 facility

26/03/2020, RAMYA KANNAN,CHENNAI

Outlining the strategy to be adopted in the private sector to manage the COVID-19 outbreak, Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar said the government was exploring the idea of taking one major hospital in a block — with 200 to 300 patients — and converting it into a specialised unit to treat SARS-CoV-2 patients.

“We are planning to do this in order to not expose other patients in hospitals to the infection. Not all hospitals in the private sector may have facilities that will allow for isolation, segregation and be able to follow the stringent protocols that we specify. So we have decided to take one major hospital in each block, in tier 1, 2 and 3 cities and have them take all cases, as and when necessary,” he said.

He held meetings with hospital representatives in the city, including those from MIOT Hospital, MGM, Saveetha, Fortis Malar, Billroth, Kauvery and Dr. Rela Institute and Medical Centre. All private hospitals expressed their willingness to co-operate with the State government.

Air India carries medical supplies

27/03/2020,NEW DELHI

Air India carried the first bulk consignment of face masks and medical equipment from Mumbai to New Delhi on Thursday as the focus in the aviation sector shifts to transport of essential medical supplies after the ban on passenger flights. Air India operated its Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which landed in Delhi at 4 p.m. on Thursday, with 6.5 tonnes of cargo, according to the airline’s spokesperson. The airline has only passenger aircraft in its fleet and carries cargo in the aircraft’s belly which has limited capacity as compared to freight aircraft.

SpiceJet to ferry 142 Iran returnees to Jodhpur

27/03/2020,NEW DELHI

SpiceJet on Thursday said it would operate a special flight from Delhi to Jodhpur on Friday to ferry 142 Indians evacuated from Iran to a quarantine facility there. The airline said in a statement that it would deploy its Boeing 737 aircraft for the service, which is being run at the request of the government. The passengers will reach New Delhi on a Mahan Air flight. The SpiceJet flight will take off from New Delhi at 1.40 a.m. and land in Jodhpur at 2.55 a.m. on Friday. The Army has set up one of its quarantine facilities in Jodhpur for Indians returning from abroad.

Pay and accounts units to ensure salaries on time

27/03/2020,NEW DELHI

Although work in government offices not engaged in essential services has come to a standstill, their pay and accounts divisions are functioning to ensure that the employees get salaries on time. “The pending salaries of contractual workers are also being cleared by supervisory officers on a priority basis,” said an official in the Income Tax Department. In an addendum to the guidelines for the lockdown, the Home Ministry exempted the Pay & Accounts Offices, apart from the field offices of the Controller-General of Accounts, with a bare minimum staff.

Patna govt. doctors seek home quarantine

27/03/2020

“We’re on duty without all necessary kits and masks, which makes many of us vulnerable to infection...many of us have developed symptoms of COVID-19...but nobody is here to listen us,” said Ravi Ranjan Kumar Raman, president of the NMCH Junior Doctors Association.

“We face acute shortage of PPE kits, N-95 masks and other necessary protective gear ...we’re still waiting for these to come... till then we’re left to serve and die here,” they alleged.

On March 23, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had announced a monetary incentive equal to one month basic salary for doctors and paramedical staff for their contribution to fighting COVID-19. However, the junior doctors have written to the government to “utilise the money to provide them PPE kits and N-95 masks.”

The United Resident & Doctors Association of India has drawn the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a letter written on March 25, to the plight of the NMCH junior doctors.

“A recent incidence of Nalanda Medical College in Patna, Bihar has been brought to our notice where 83 resident doctors who had history of exposure to positive patients are now having symptoms and are suspected of being positive. No tests have been done, nor the said doctors have been quarantined which may complicate the situation. We request you to kindly direct authorities not to ignore such grievous situations,” the letter said.

Rate of spread has slowed relatively: govt.

27/03/2020

“The National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS) has been roped in to provide behavioural health modules while training is being offered to ASHAs and grassroots-level health workers to educate, help in surveillance and assist with care of patients,” said Mr. Agarwal.

Stating that this is the biggest challenge that country faces Mr. Agarwal said the “mistake of even a single individual not complying with the rules laid down by the government could prove costly for him and his family.”

He said there is no evidence of this so far and added that India is still not registering any community transmission.

Joint Secretary, Home Ministry Punya Salila Srivastava, said measures have been put in place to ensure the regular supply of essential goods and health services to even remote area of India with special flight to northeast.

Head of Epidemiology, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Raman Gangakhedkar, said the Council had not still felt the need to test all health care workers and that there is no trend to indicate that elderly in India are at added risk.

“We have further increased our laboratory strength by roping in 25 private labs. They have nearly 20,000 collection centres. However, testing has not been majorly expanded as these labs are still getting their testing kits and also we don’t have the numbers yet to press all of them into action.”

The number of cases in Gujarat increased to 44 on Thursday, officials said.

PMO calls for daily virus updates

Union Ministers allotted States to oversee measures to combat COVID-19

27/03/2020, NISTULA HEBBAR,NEW DELHI

Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday directed several of his Cabinet colleagues to take up the responsibility of coordination between the States and the Centre in the fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The move comes on Day Two of the nationwide lockdown even as disruptions in supply chains and anxieties with regard to migrant workers being left destitute across cities in India were widely reported.

Ministers in charge of various States have been told to speak to the District Magistrate (DM) of every district and keep themselves and the Prime Ministers Office (PMO), Union Home and Health Ministries updated.

“Monitoring will be done every day and the PMO will be kept updated daily as well. This would include keeping track of the number of positive cases in a district, number of those quarantined, how many people were under home quarantine, how many people had arrived in the district from outside, whether there are any hiccups in supply of essential commodities, what was the state of testing and whether enough supplies were there for testing,” said a senior source.

Ministers assigned

Under the plan, Water Resources Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has been given charge of Rajasthan; Minister of State for Road Transport V.K. Singh of Assam; Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Mahendranath Pandey and Kishan Pal Gujjar of Uttar Pradesh; Highways and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Information Minister Prakash Javadekar of Maharashtra; Dharmendra Pradhan of Odisha; Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi of Jharkhand; Arjun Munda of Chhattisgarh; and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan t of Bihar.

Minister of State in the PMO Jitender Singh will be in charge of 22 districts in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.