There is a need for State Health Ministers to personally monitor and review the preparedness of all infrastructure and ensure there is adequate stock of essential medicines, said Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya while virtually interacting with the state health ministers and principal secretaries/additional chief secretaries and information commissioners.

“Centre and states need to work in tandem and in a collaborative spirit as was done during the previous surges for COVID-19 prevention and management,” stated Mandaviya.

The virtual meeting was held in the presence of Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar, Union Minister of State for Health, and Dr. V. K. Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog to review the public health preparedness for containment and management of COVID-19 and progress of national COVID-19 vaccination campaign in view of the recent upsurge in cases in some countries like China, Japan, Brazil, and the United States.

The high-level review meeting was attended by N. Rangaswamy, Chief Minister, Puducherry; Dr. Manik Saha, Chief Minister and Health Minister, Tripura; Manoj Sinha, Lieutenant Governor, Jammu & Kashmir; Parsadi Lal Meena, Health Minister, Rajasthan; Dhan Singh Rawat, Health Minister, Uttarakhand, Keshab Mahanta, Health Minister, Assam; Dr. K. Sudhakar, Health Minister, Karnataka; Banna Gupta, Health Minister, Jharkhand; Prabhuram Choudhury, Health Minister, Madhya Pradesh; S. Chetan Singh Jauramajra, Health Minister, Punjab; T. S. Singh Deo, Health Minister, Chhattisgarh; Sapam Ranjan Singh, Health Minister, Manipur; Anil Vij, Health Minister, Haryana; Ma Subramanian, Health Minister, Tamil Nadu; Vidadala Rajini, Health Minister, Andhra Pradesh; Veena George, Health Minister, Kerala; Chandrima Bhattacharya, Health Minister, West Bengal; and Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister, Delhi joined the high-level review meeting.

Mandaviya referred to the message from the Prime Minister from the high level review meeting and advised states to be on the alert and keep all preparedness for COVID-19 management. States were requested to continue with a pre-emptive and proactive approach.

He urged states to strengthen the surveillance system for whole genome sequencing of positive case samples to track the variants through the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) network to ensure timely detection of newer variants, if any, circulating in the country. Focus is to be given to health facility-based sentinel surveillance; pan-respiratory virus surveillance; community-based surveillance; and sewage/wastewater surveillance.

He highlighted the “Need to collectively reinvigorate the system and remove any sense of complacency and fatigue”.

Mandaviya said that irrespective of the new COVID variants, ‘Test-Track-Treat-Vaccinate & Adherence to COVID Appropriate Behaviour’ continue to remain the tested strategy for COVID management. States/UTs were also requested to expeditiously increase the rate of testing from the current rate of 79 tests per million, as on week ending 22nd December, 2022. They were further advised to increase the share of RT-PCR in tests.

Union Health Minister advised states/UTs to ramp up vaccination of all eligible population, especially of the elderly and vulnerable population group. He cautioned against spreading misinformation by ensuring dissemination of factually correct information in a timely manner. In view of the upcoming festive season, he stressed on the importance of public awareness campaigns regarding adherence to Covid Appropriate Behaviour.

Dr. Manohar Agnani, AS (Health Ministry), Lav Agarwal, AS (Health Ministry), Mandeep Bhandari, JS (Health Ministry), Dr. Atul Goel, DGHS, and senior officials of the ministry were present in the meeting.