Union Health Ministry asks states to test grocery shop workers, vendors

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The Union Health Ministry has asked states and UTs to take up coronavirus testing of grocery shop workers, vegetable and other vendors, stating if undetected they can potentially spread the infection to a large number of people.

In a letter to states and UTs, Secretary in the Health Ministry, Rajesh Bhushan also stressed the need for operationalising ambulance transport system with oxygen facility and quick response mechanism.

He underlined that refusal rate of ambulances must be monitored at a daily basis and brought down to zero.

With the COVID-19 pandemic now spreading to newer areas in the country, Bhushan said there are likely to be scattered cases, cluster of cases or large outbreaks in districts and that the primary aim is to control outbreaks especially in new locations.

The focus at the same time should be to save lives at all cost,” he said.

“While we have so far done better than many other countries in this respect, our aim should be to further reduce mortality and ensure that it does not cross the 1 per cent mark,” Bhushan said in the letter, addressed to additional chief secretaries, principal secretaries and secretaries (health).

Bhushan 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.

“Early detection of cases is the most crucial element to ensure that the case fatality is reduced. It helps in terms of not only identifying the case before it may become critical but also supports in terms of checking the spread of infection,” he said in the letter.

He stressed on enhanced surveillance for influenza like illness (ILI)/severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) 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 per cent of the contacts must be identified and quarantined within 72 hours, he said.

Normally, a person would have an average of 30 contacts for a period of tracking that two days before the symptom onset, Bhushan said.

“There can be potential hotspots for spread of infection like industrial clusters with closed work environment, people coming from high prevalence areas, other high density areas such as slums, prisons, old age homes etc.

“In addition, grocery shops, vegetable and other vendors etc can be potential spreaders of infection to a large number of people. Testing in such areas and of such people should be taken up proactively as per ICMR guidelines,” Bhushan underscored.

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.

“This will help identify challenges to be addressed and will facilitate effective case reporting and ensure timely and required medical interventions,” Bhushan highlighted.

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 is the elderly, people with comorbidities and pregnant women among others.

Alongside this exercise, containment and buffer zones should be set up and the perimeter of the containment zone must be properly secured.

“An ambulance transport system with oxygen facility and quick response mechanism needs to be operationalised. The refusal rate of ambulances must be monitored at a daily basis and must be reduced to zero,” he stressed.

Availability of COVID beds in all healthcare facilities (government and private) must be proactively put in the public domain, he said, adding responsible administrative officers should coordinate transparent allocation of beds and timely admission.

A communication mechanism between the patients and their family members must be organised, he stated.

He also urged districts to analyse the requirement of health infrastructure in terms of availability of sufficient oxygen supported beds, ICU beds and ventilators and take advance action to upgrade health infrastructure based on expected caseload in future.