Guwahati: The Union Health Ministry has asked states and Union Territories to take up coronavirus testing of grocery shop workers, vegetable, and other vendors to halt the spread of the dreaded contagion.
The Centre stated that if undetected, grocery shop workers can potentially spread the infection to a large number of people.
In a letter to states and UTs, Secretary, Health Ministry, Rajesh Bhushan also stressed the need for operationalizing the ambulance transport system with oxygen facility and quick response mechanism.
Bhushan underlined that the refusal rate of ambulances must be monitored on a daily basis and brought down to zero.
Bhushan also said there are likely to be scattered cases, a cluster of cases, or large outbreaks in districts.
He said the primary aim is to control outbreaks especially in new locations and to save lives at all costs. We must ensure that it does not cross the 1 percent mark, he added.
The Secretary pointed out that early detection of cases through aggressive testing, prompt isolation, or admission in a healthcare facility and ensuring proper clinical management are major components of mortality reduction.
He stressed enhanced surveillance for influenza-like illness, and severe acute respiratory illness as their symptoms are mostly the same as COVID.
Once a positive case is identified, a prompt contact-tracing should be undertaken and at least 80 percent of the contacts must be identified and quarantined within 72 hours. He said there can be potential hotspots for the spread of infection like industrial clusters with a closed work environment, people coming from high prevalence areas, other high-density areas such as slums, prisons, and old age homes.
He also asked states and UTs to undertake weekly death audits to assess the determinants of death such as age differentials, comorbidities, late reporting to hospital and clinical protocols that were followed, he said.
In the letter, Bhushan also said that a regular house-to-house search must be done periodically to identify those who are at high-risk that are the elderly, people with comorbidities, and pregnant women among others.