Do house-to-house surveillance to contain Covid surge: Centre to Punjab, Chandigarh
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 31
The Centre on Wednesday reviewed the sharp COVID surge in Punjab and Chandigarh after Punjab reported 21 per cent week-on-week increase in new COVID cases and 2,740 average daily cases over the last seven days.
During the same time period, Punjab saw 30 pc week-on-week increase in new COVID deaths and continues to report 53 average daily deaths.
Chandigarh followed the same pattern reporting nearly 27 pc week-on-week rise in new cases and 180 pc week-on-week increase in new daily deaths. An average of 257 daily cases and 14 daily deaths have been reported in Chandigarh during the last week.
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In the review meeting with the officials of the state and the UT today, union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan and Member Health, NITI Aayog VK Paul told the district officers of Punjab and Chandigarh to refocus on effective house-to-house surveillance and identify active cases for timely testing, contact tracing and swift isolation.
The Centre also told Punjab and Chandigarh to iIdentify clusters, focus stringent implementation of micro-containment zone approach.
At a meeting attended by Punjab Principal secretary (Health), Mission Director (National Health Mission), State Surveillance Officer, DCs and Municipal Commissioners, the Centre called for increased testing with focus on RT-PCR tests, effective contact tracing with at least 25 to 30 close contacts of each positive case, strict implementation of containment zones, intensification of vaccination drive, and enforcement of social distancing measures were highlighted as the pivot of effective management strategy.
Three fronts for tackling the recent surge were suggested by Bhushan—Test, Track and Treat strategy to ensure positivity rate dropped below 5 pc (from 8.82 pc in Punjab as against 5.65 pc nationally); significantly increase testing in all districts with 70 pc RT-PCR tests; mandatorily subject those with negative Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) reports to RT-PCR tests; priority vaccination of eligible groups in districts with higher cases and transfer of unused vaccine doses from one district to another for optimum utilisation of available vaccine doses.
DCs of Amritsar, Ludhiana, SBS Nagar and Jalandhar participated in the meeting.
