TESTING STILL BELOW 1 LAKH A DAY

NEW DELHI, May 26: The Health Ministry is vowing to hike up the COVID-19 testing to two lakh a day in views of the spike in the disease but it is still less than 1 lakh as 92,528 were tested in the past 24 hours and those found infected with the virus were 6535 which shows the highest spike of 7.06% that otherwise fluctuated between 4 and 5%.
Total number of confirmed cases registered in India since March rose to 1,45,380 though those still in hospitals under treatment were 80,722 as 60,491 have so far recovered and another 4167 died due to COVID-19.
As many as 146 persons died in the past 24 hours while those recovering accounted for 2670, but that saw the recovery rate going up slightly to 41.61 against 41.57 on Monday.
Maharashtra continues to be the most infected with the latest tally of confirmed cases being 52,667 and the highest death toll of 1695, though it also reported recovery of 15,786. The second highest confirmed cases are 17,082 in Tamil Nadu, followed by 14460 in Gujarat and 14053 in Delhi. In terms of deaths, Gujarat comes at second place with 888 casualties so far, followed by 300 i Madhya Pradesh, 278 in West Bengal, 276 in Delhi, 167 in Rajasthan and 165 in Uttar Pradesh.
The confirmed cases in UP rose from 6228 to 6532 but nowhere near 10 lakh as claimed by its chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday, claiming that this big jump in the cases was due to arrival of the stranded workers from Maharashtra, Delhi and other states. If he were to be believed, 75% of those coming from Maharashtra were infected.
Meanwhile, Health Secretary Preeti Sudan, along with OSD Rajesh Bhushan and senior officers of the Health Ministry, held a high-level video conference with the chief secretaries and health secretaries of five states -- Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh that are seeing upsurge in COVID-19 cases due to inter-state migration since the lockdown was eased three weeks ago.
They advised the states that Mobile Medical Units (MMUs) can be stationed at quarantine centres; temporary sub-health centres could be set up in existing buildings and additional frontline workers can be utilized. It was advised the link with Ayushman Bharat – Health and Wellness Centres needs to be established so that immediate health check-ups can be arranged. Tele-medicine services can to be rolled out from these centres. Temporary sub health centres could also be operationalised in existing buildings with additional deployment of health workers.
The States were briefed on the individual case trajectory with respect to case fatality rate, doubling time, testing per million and confirmation percentage. Factors that need to be focused for effective containment strategy were pointed out such as perimeter control, diligent house to house survey through special surveillance teams, testing, active contact tracing and effective clinical management were highlighted. It was also emphasized that each containment zone has to be analysed to check the trends and adopt course correction measures through proper formation and implementation of micro plans. The activities within the Buffer Zone were also reiterated.
It was reiterated that States need to pay focused attention on assessing the existing the available health infrastructure in terms of quarantine centres, hospitals with ICU/Ventilator/oxygen beds etc., and to strengthen them looking at the need assessment for the next two months. Use of data emerging from Aarogya Setu was also pointed out to the participating States.
Regarding non-COVID essential health services, States were reminded that immediate measures need to be taken to continue essential health programs for TB, Leprosy, COPD, Non-communicable diseases like hypertension, diabetes, treatment for injuries and trauma due to accidents need to be continued.