(Image source from: Livemint.com)

A high level review meeting went on for three hours on Friday between the Cabinet ministry and CM’s of 9 states.

6 main issues of the 9 state governments- Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, Assam, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh were discussed in the meeting and several suggestions were given by the Centre to deal with the pandemic.

Centre has said that these 9 states have seen a surge in the pandemic and has issued some guidelines to tackle with the soaring number of positive cases.

The meeting was chaired by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba and chief secretaries of all the nine states and experts from national task force for COVID-19.

The cabinet secretary has said that six months into the pandemic, the states have learned to handle the pandemic, implement the strategies, surveillance of infections, breaking the chain of transmission and bringing down mortality rates.

The issue of these states lies in the effective implementation of these strategies. The state governments must proactively address the issues of implementation glitches.

The nine states which have implemented sporadic lockdowns and area wise lockdowns must also effectively implement systematic containment and effective surveillance. They must also strengthen the hospital infrastructure and clinical management.

As the surge in cases is leading to fatigue among health workers, the centre stressed that they must allow rotational shifts and utilize additional work force in the form of retired doctors, final year MBBS students and nursing graduates to tackle the case loads.

The centre has also said that delay in procurement of decisions will lead to loss of lives. So, rigorous planning is needed with regard to consumables like oxygen cylinders, testing kits and medicines. Chief Secretaries must ensure that these medical supplies must be procured as soon as possible.

Lessons from Delhi, Kerala and Goa have taught us that the pandemic situation can be turned around, situations in Karnataka have taught us that the pandemic can get worse. So, the centre said that a stead fast and resolute approach is needed to deal with the pandemic by all the governments.

The states were also told that the governments must have a regular mechanism to ensure prompt and regular communication with the public.

Lately, the country has been racing towards 50,000 coronavirus daily. Andhra Pradesh has recorded 8000 cases on Friday, the biggest jump in cases till now.

However, all these states have been reporting low testing numbers and high number of cases.

By Gayatri Yellayi