India's healthcare workers its frontline warriors, should respect their contribution, ensure safety and dignity: Harsh Vardhan

Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan on Saturday stated that the healthcare workers of India are the nation's frontline warriors combating the coronavirus COVID-19, adding that their contribution should be respected and safety and dignity protected. He also commended the dedication and hard work of all the stakeholders at all levels. 

Chairing the 13th meeting of the high-level Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 held in the national capital, Vardhan informed that in view of the urgent need for addressing the issues of stigma and discrimination of patients and also the healthcare workers combating with COVID-19, the Ordinance for amendment of Epidemic Diseases Act 1897 has been recently promulgated with very stringent provisions.

“This is not only their fight but our collective effort. They are our frontline warriors and as a nation, let us not only respect their contribution but ensure that their safety and dignity are protected too," he stated.

The meeting was attended by Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep S Puri, Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar, Minister of State for Home Nityananda Rai, Minister of State, Health & Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey among other leaders. Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, and Chairperson of the Empowered Group-6, C K Mishra, (Environment, Forest & Climate Change) and Chairperson of the Empowered Group-2, Dr Arun K Panda, Secretary (MSME) and Chairperson of the Empowered Group-4, and P D Vaghela, Chairperson, Empowered Group-3 were also present.

A detailed presentation on the status of COVID-19 in the country along with the response and management of COVID-19 in the country was made for the GoM. The Group of Ministers (GoM) had detailed deliberation on the measures taken as on date by the Centre and various states and UTs for prevention, containment and management of COVID-19.

GoM was informed that all districts have been asked to follow and further strengthen their contingency plans to combat COVID-19; the GOM was briefed on the state-wise details of dedicated COVID-19 hospitals along with the adequacy of isolation beds/wards, PPEs, N95 masks, drugs, ventilators, oxygen cylinders etc.

It was informed that domestic manufactures which have been identified earlier have already started the production of PPEs, masks etc., and adequate quantity of the same is available. As on date, more than one lakh PPEs and N95 masks are being manufactured every day in the country. There are at present 104 domestic manufactures of PPE and three making N95 masks in the country. In addition, production of ventilators vides domestic manufacturers have also started and orders have been placed for more than 59,000 units through nine manufacturers.

The GoM also reviewed the testing strategy and availability of testing kits across the country along with the strategy for hotspots and cluster management. GoM was briefed about the number of public and private labs presently testing for COVID-19 along with the number of tests that are being conducted every day through this network of labs.

It was apprised that around 92,000 NGOs, SHGs and civil society organisations are working and contributing by providing food to the migrant workers across various states and UTs. These NGOs are supported by the States by allotting fund from SDRF funds and by FCI who is providing the food grains at a subsidised cost.

GoM was also informed that a national level meta-data of health workers, NSS, NYK, NCC, doctors etc., has been prepared and shared to all the States, Districts and other officials, to mobilise the resources/volunteers (COVID warriors) to much-needed locations. 

The dashboard contains state and district wise information about the number of human resources available from each group, along with the contact details of respective State and District Nodal officers. These COVID warriors are being trained through online platforms such as MoHFW website and the iGOT training portal. The platform has 14 courses with 53 modules which includes 113 videos and 29 documents. As on date, more than 10 lakh personnel have been trained.

GoM was apprised that as of now the death rate is around 3.1 per cent while recovery rate is more than 20 per cent, which is comparatively better than most of the countries and may be taken as a positive effect of the Lockdown in the country along with the cluster management & containment strategy. The average doubling rate of the country is 9.1 days, as of now. 

The GoM was also informed that as of now, 5,062 people have been cured with a recovery rate of 20.66 per cent. Since April 24, an increase of 1429 new cases has been reported.  Also, a total of 24,506 people have been confirmed positive for COVID-19.