Dr Vardhan holds review meeting with North-East States over COVID-19 management

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Saturday held a high-level meeting with the representatives from the North-Eastern states to review preparedness and containment measures taken for COVID-19 management.

The video-conference meeting on the issue was held in the presence of Ashwini Kumar Choubey, MoS for Health and Family Welfare, along with the representatives from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Mpur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, and Sikkim.

"It is a huge relief and very encouraging to see green zones in most North-Eastern states. As of date, only Assam and Tripura have active COVID-19 cases. The other states are all in the green zone. Let us focus and work together by converting the orange zones to green zones and maintain the protective status across the States," said Dr Vardhan at the outset of the meeting, according to a release.

The representatives from all states apprised the Union Health Minister of various issues being faced by them including those related to testing facilities, health infrastructure, surveillance, contact tracing, etc.

To maintain the status quo as regarding COVID-19 cases in most of the states with no cases, Dr Vardhan advised the states to ensure that the returning migrant labourers, students and those returning from abroad should be screened and quarantined as per the guidelines and protocol laid down by the by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of External Affairs.

He also urged the states to work towards effective surveillance, contact tracing, house to house survey and early diagnosis.

"Surveillance for Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI)/Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) should be intensified in unaffected districts and districts which have not reported cases from the last 14 days and more through the IDSP network in collaboration with the medical college hospitals," added Dr Vardhan.

For the States that have international borders, Dr Vardhan stated that these States need to take adequate measures at the border areas to prevent exposure by conducting a screening of all individual entering the State at entry points and following quarantine protocol as per the guidelines.

( With inputs from ANI )