COVID-19 CASES SOAR TO 62.939 IN INDIA AS DEATH TOLL MOUNTS TO 2,109

Telangana

From Our Bureau                       

10th MAY 2020

A total of 62,939 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the country so far and the death toll mounted to 2,109 on Sunday. So far, 19,357 people have been cured. In the last 24 hours, 3,277 new confirmed cases were reported and 1,511 patients were cured.  The recovery rate has improved to 30.7 percent. The total number of active cases now is 41,472.

Adequate health infrastructure and health facilities have been identified and set up for COVID-19 management in the country. The public health facilities dedicated for COVID-19 case management are categorised into three categories:

Category I Dedicated COVID Hospital (DCH) – The Dedicated COVID Hospitals are hospitals that offer comprehensive care primarily for those who have been clinically assigned as severe. These hospitals have fully equipped ICUs, Ventilators and beds with assured Oxygen support. These hospitals have separate areas for suspect and confirmed cases. The Dedicated COVID Hospitals serve as referral centres for the Dedicated COVID Health Centres and the COVID Care Centres.

Category II Dedicated COVID Health Centre (DCHC) – The Dedicated COVID Health Centres are hospitals that offer care for all cases that have been clinically assigned as moderate. The Dedicated COVID Health Centres have separate areas for suspect and confirmed cases. These hospitals have beds with assured Oxygen support. Every Dedicated COVID Health Centre is mapped to one or more Dedicated COVID Hospitals.

Category III Dedicated COVID Care Centre (DCCC) – The COVID Care Centres offer care only for cases that have been clinically assigned as mild or very mild cases or COVID suspect cases. These are makeshift facilities which may be set up by the States/Union Territories in hostels, hotels, schools, stadiums, lodges etc., both public and private. These facilities have separate areas for suspected and confirmed cases. Every Dedicated COVID Care Centre is mapped to one or more Dedicated COVID Health Centres and at least one Dedicated COVID Hospital for referral purpose.

As on 10th May, 7,740 facilities in 483 districts have been identified in all the States/UTs that include hospitals and facilities of the State/UT Governments as well as the Central Government. There are 6,56,769 isolation beds, 3,05,567 beds for confirmed cases, 3,51,204 beds for suspected cases, 99,492 Oxygen supported beds, 1,696 facilities with Oxygen manifold and 34,076 ICU beds.

All the States/UTs have been asked by Government of India to notify and upload the assigned three types of COVID dedicated facilities on their websites for public information. 32 States/UTs have already uploaded the information on their websites/public information platforms and the rest are in the process of doing the same.

In view of the need for further increasing the testing capacity for COVID-19 at National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the procurement of a high throughput machine as per the recommendations of Empowered Group 2 was approved. The Cobas 6800 testing machine has been successfully installed at NCDC now. NCDC is providing support for testing of samples from Delhi, NCR, Ladakh, J&K and various other states, as per need. Presently the testing capacity at NCDC is about 300-350 tests per day. With Cobas 6800, which is a high throughput machine with the capacity to test around 1200 samples in 24 hours, the testing capacity for COVID-19 at NCDC has been significantly enhanced.

Central teams being sent to States to support in COVID-19 Management

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has decided to deploy Central teams to 10 States that have witnessed/are witnessing high case load and high spurt of cases. The teams will assist the State Health departments of respective States to facilitate management of COVID-19 outbreak.

The teams are composed of a senior official from the MoHFW, a Joint Secretary level nodal officer and a public health expert. The team shall support the State health department in implementation of containment measures in the affected areas within the respective states’ districts/cities.

The teams are being sent to the Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan,  Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal,  Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

This is besides the 20 central teams of public health experts which were earlier sent to the high case load districts. 

A high level team had recently been deputed to Mumbai to support the State efforts in COVID-19 response and management. (eom)

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