The Union Health Ministry on Thursday identified 20 existing and 22 potential hotspots in the country while also asserting that there is no evidence of widespread community transmission of COVID-19.
The ministry stated this in an advisory issued to the states on mobilisation and training of human resource for management of the viral outbreak.
“Although there is no evidence of widespread community transmission, 20 existing and 22 potential hotspots have been identified. The containment measures to break the cycle of transmission and clinical management of those affected would require large human resources,” it stated.
The ministry said that enhanced deployment of human resources is required in clinical management, surveillance, psycho-social care, management of quarantine, isolation facilities, logistics and supply chain.
It said that human resources pooled from various sources will be assigned for such roles. “Such identified HR needs to be trained online using online training programs developed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW),” it stated.
Each state has been directed to identify and designate a nodal officer for training. The officer will coordinate all training activities in the state.
For COVID-19 management, the district administration will also pool-in the requisite human resources.
“Such pooled human resources would stay in the containment zone till the containment operations are over,” the minister further added in the document.
The advisory added, “For isolation areas, in addition to training all hospital staff, dentists and AYUSH practitioners available should also be trained. Retired doctors and other healthcare professionals should be identified to work in non-covid areas.”
It stated quarantine facilities are meant to house asymptomatic cases and the number identified and trained manpower should be equal to the number of COVID-19 warriors.
Nizamuddin Markaz: 2 deaths, 108 test for Covid-19 in Delhi
With 55 new cases in the last 24 hours and two deaths reported, the total coronavirus cases from the Tablighi Jamaat’s Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi reached 108 in Delhi on Thursday, doubling the city’s patient count to 219.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said the number of positive cases can increase massively due to the infected people in the Markaz building.
“The government has decided to test all those who were evacuated from the Markaz,” he said, adding out of the 2,348 evacuated from the building, 1,810 people are at the quarantine facilities while 536 are at the hospitals.
The Chief Minister said four deaths have been reported in Delhi since the outbreak of the infection.
“Two evacuated from Nizamuddin markaz have died due to coronavirus in the last 24 hours,” he said. Two deaths were reported last month due to the virus in the city.
Kejriwal said among the 219 coronavirus patients, 208 are in the hospital. Six have been discharged and one went abroad while four have died.
“Out of 219 positive patients, 108 are those evacuated from Nizamuddin Markaz, while 51 are the patients who have foreign travel history. They got infected from abroad. 29 cases are the family members of those having travel history.”
Out of those under going treatment, Kejriwal said one is on the ventilator and five on oxygen while 202 are stable. “I hope they will recover.”
He said while he is sharing the data, two things leave him the most worried.
“One is if the local transmission is happening? The local transmission is not happening. The data makes this clear.”
Kejriwal also said those from Markaz are serious, while rest are stable.
The Chief Minister said ,307 people were asked to self-quarantine themselves, about 3,000 are under quarantine at government facilities.
The patient count in Delhi has increased rapidly in just four days due to the Markaz cases.
There were 97 cases on Monday, which increased to 120 on Tuesday, to 152 on Wednesday, before shooting up to to 219.
