Union Health Minister asks States to ramp up infrastructure due to rise in Covid-19 cases

Shivani Gadhavi

Published On: January 03, 2022 at 15:24 IST

The Union Health Minister of India on January 2, 2022 advised all the State Governments to develop more infrastructure for the management of the increasing number of Covid-19 cases currently in India. The Minister asked the State Governments to utilize the Emergency Covid-19 Response Package and act efficiently to curb the rising number of cases.

The Union Health Minister of India Mansukh Mandaviya stated that “India is facing 3-4 times the surge in Covid-19 cases in comparison to their earlier peaks, too” and also “High surge in cases can overwhelm the medical system” and “…therefore, states (should) leave no stone unturned in ramping up infrastructure to manage a high surge so that India escapes unscathed from this episode of Covid-19.”

The Minister observed that all the States putting together have utilized only 17% of the Emergency Covid-19 Response Package-II (ECRP-II) which consisted of INR 23, 123 crores, the Package which was approved by the Government in august 2021.

The Minister stated, “States/UTs were also urged to effectively use IT tools for tele-medicine and tele-consultation, including training and capacity building of human resources, timely availability of ambulances, the readiness of states to operationalize COVID facilities for institutional quarantining, and effective and supervised monitoring of those in home isolation.”

The Minister also pointed out, “To avoid the mixing-up of vaccines during administration, separate CVCs, separate session sites, separate queue (if at same session where adult vaccination is ongoing) and separate vaccination team (if at same session site) are to be strived for.”

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