Ventilators' Audit, Containment Strategies & Testing: What All PM Modi Discussed At Covid Review Meet

The Prime Minister, who chaired a high-level meeting to discuss the Covid and vaccination related situation in the country, said that refresher training for properly operating ventilators should be provided to healthcare workers if necessary.

New Delhi: Taking serious note of some reports about ventilators lying unutilized in storage in some states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday directed that an immediate audit of installation and operation of ventilators provided by the Central Government should be carried out.

The Prime Minister, who chaired a high-level meeting to discuss the Covid and vaccination related situation in the country, said that refresher training for properly operating ventilators should be provided to healthcare workers if necessary. 

He directed that a distribution plan for ensuring oxygen supply in rural areas should be worked out, including through provision of oxygen concentrators.

The Prime Minister said that necessary training should be provided to health workers in the operation of such equipment, adding power supply should be ensured for smooth operation of such medical devices.

Stating that localised containment strategies are the need of the hour, especially for states where TPR in districts is high, Prime Minister Modi instructed that testing needs to be scaled up further, with use of both RT PCR and Rapid Tests, especially in areas with high test positivity rates.

He said that states should be encouraged to report their numbers transparently without any pressure of high numbers showing adversely on their efforts.

Prime Minister Modi asked for augmentation of healthcare resources in rural areas to focus on door to door testing and surveillance.

He also spoke about empowering ASHA and Anganwadi workers with all necessary tools.

Prime Minister Modi during the meeting asked for guidelines to be made available in easy language along with illustrations for home isolation and treatment in rural areas.

He said that India’s fight against Covid has been guided throughout by scientists and subject experts and will continue being guided by them.

Prime Minister Modi directed the officials, who briefed him about the vaccination process and the state-wise coverage of 45+ population, to work closely with states to ramp up the speed of vaccination.

The officials briefed the Prime Minister that testing has gone up rapidly from around 50 lakh tests per week in early March to around 1.3 crore tests per week now in the country.

They also informed Prime Minister Modi about the gradually decreasing test positivity rate and increasing recovery rate. It was discussed that cases, which had gone over four lakh cases per day, are now coming down as a result of the efforts by the healthcare workers, the state governments and the Centre.

The officials gave a detailed presentation on the state and district level situation of Covid, testing, oxygen availability, healthcare infrastructure and vaccination roadmap during the meeting where the roadmap for future vaccine availability was also discussed.