Eight states contribute 85 per cent Covid cases, 87 per cent deaths in India

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 27

Eight states — Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Telangana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal — are contributing 85.5 per cent of active COVID-19 caseload in India and 87 per cent of total deaths. 

This information was shared with the Group of Ministers on COVID-19, which met for the 17th time on Saturday and asked states to ramp-up testing and reach full national testing capacity of three-lakh samples a day.

Chaired by Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, the GOM was informed by ICMR chief Balram Bhargava that the samples tested in the last 24 hours have increased to 2,20,479 taking the total cumulative number of samples tested, as on date, to 79,96,707. 

Tests per day being conducted in India are, however, lesser than daily testing capacity of three-lakh samples.

India now has 1,026 diagnostic labs dedicated to COVID-19. This includes 741 in the government sector and 285 private labs, but their capacity remains under used.

The GOM was briefed on the current status of COVID-19 cases in the country, the recovery and mortality rates, doubling rate, ramped-up testing and strengthened healthcare infrastructure in the various states.  

It was also informed that, as on date, 15 Central teams of public health experts, epidemiologists, clinicians and a senior Joint Secretary-level have been deployed to provide technical support to the states. 

Another Central team is currently visiting Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana to strengthen ongoing efforts for management of COVID-19. 

The Group of Ministers was told the key focus areas, which are continually communicated to the states and UTs are strict containment measures and surveillance; focus on monitoring of co-morbid and elderly population; predicting emerging hotspots leveraging digital tools such as Aarogya Setu; ensuring seamless patient admission processes; fatality mitigation by effective clinical management; focus on infrastructure preparedness (critical care beds, oxygen, ventilators and logistics); and ensuring that non-Covid healthcare services are not impacted.

GoM was also apprised about the growing medical infrastructure in the country.

In a detailed presentation by K. Shivaji, Chairman of the Empowered Group-10, the GoM was briefed that the stipulated redressal time on COVID-19 public grievances was brought down from the usual 60 days for normal public grievances to three days to prioritise their quick disposal. 

National Dashboard for 'COVID -19' was launched on April 1 for exclusive monitoring of COVID-19 public grievances. 

During the period from March 30 to June 24, the Empowered Group disposed 93.84 pc of the 77,307 grievances received for central Ministries and 63.11 per cent of the 53,130 grievances received pertaining to the state governments.