New Delhi, Apr 17, The Group of Ministers on COVID-19 on Friday reviewed the testing strategy and availability of testing kits across the country along with the strategy for hotspots and cluster management and was informed that all districts have been asked to prepare and strengthen their contingency plans to combat COVID-19.
The 12th meeting of GoM on COVID-19, which met at Nirman Bhawan here, under the chairmanship of Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, was informed that 170 districts were put in the red zone (hotspots) with 123 districts with large outbreaks and 47 districts with clusters.
There were 207 non-hotspot districts with clusters and 353 districts which were placed in green zone as they were non-infected.
If no case was reported in past 14 days then the red zone district would be placed under orange zone and no further case was reported in next 14 days then that district would come under green zone.
The GoM had detailed deliberation on containment and management of COVID-19 and discussed the actions taken so far, current status of social distancing measures as a preventive strategy and the stringent actions taken by the Centre as well as the States to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Dr Harsh Vardhan directed that there should not be any dilution of quality and standards in manufacturing of PPEs, masks, ventilators and other equipments. He also suggested that stringent punishment may be placed for the manufacturers in case of any deviation from the quality standards/protocols while manufacturing the PPEs, masks and Ventilators.
Also discussed were several other measures about strengthening capacity of states including devoting adequate resources for creating dedicated COVID-19 hospitals, equipping the medical institutes with PPEs, ventilators and other essential equipment in detail. States have been asked to identify COVID-19 centres/hospitals according to already laid guidelines.
GoM reviews testing strategy, availability of testing kits
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