Hospitals conduct Covid mock drills as positivity rate nears 7%

India on Monday conducted mock drills at government and private hospitals across the country to assess the preparedness of the health system to tackle a Covid wave. The number of daily cases increased to 5,880 on the day. Interestingly, several states, including Delhi, warned its citizens to be on alert citing that cases are expected to rise in the coming days. In fact, the Mumbai civic body too made masks mandatory in all civic hospitals. 

During the mock drills medicine stock, X-ray machinery, oxygen supply and PPE kit stock were checked. While Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya visited the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi to review the mock drill, various state health ministers too visited hospitals. 

The daily test positivity rate (TPR) across the country on Monday was seen at 6.91 per cent, while in Kerala TPR was seen at above 10 per cent in 10 of the total 14 districts. While visiting the RML Hospital, Mandaviya had an informal interactive session with Heads of Departments and staff. He spent time with the doctors, nurses, heads of security and sanitation services listening to their suggestions, which revolved around quality clinical practices, measures for infection control, hospital management, sanitation processes and patient-centric provisions.

On Monday, the number of active cases increased to 35,199 with 14 deaths getting reported in the last 24 hours. The country’s death toll has increased to 5,30,979 on the day. The decision to go for nationwide mock drills on Monday and Tuesday was taken at a review meeting on Covid held on April 7, in which state health ministers, and principal and additional chief secretaries also participated.

As of Sunday, Kerala topped the list of Covid cases with the number of cases crossing more than 12,000. Other states with higher number of cases are Maharashtra and Delhi.

Maharashtra reported more than 926 cases on Sunday.   "Delhi is a densely populated city. Cases will rise and many people will exhibit flu-like and influenza-like symptoms such as fever and cough. But they will recover,” said Delhi health minister Saurabh Bharadwaj. 

States like Haryana, Kerala and Puducherry have made wearing masks mandatory in public places, while Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has made it mandatory to wear masks in all BMC hospitals. BMC has also advised its employees to wear masks in public places.

The Central government has already urged states to identify emerging hotspots by monitoring trends of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) cases and sending sufficient samples for testing of COVID-19 and Influenza; and ramping up whole genome sequencing of positive samples. In Tamil Nadu, health minister Ma Subramanian inspected a mock drill at Rajiv Gandhi General Hospital in Chennai and has directed officials in various districts to be on alert.

“The third wave of Covid-19 is not as severe as the previous one and hence there is no requirement for ICU and oxygen. The spread of another variant of Omicron is witnessed across the country,” Subramanian said. In the review meeting held with states, it was highlighted that XBB 1.16 is currently the most prevalent coronavirus variant and it is not causing severe disease.

Private hospitals too have started preparations to tide over a possible spike in cases. “The increase in Covid cases across needs urgent attention. Presently, very few admissions are there. However, we must not drop our guard and renewed focus on Covid appropriate behavior is required. We at Fortis have reviewed our preparedness: Emergency areas were identified, where suspect patients can be cared for, in case there is a surge in admission. We also ensured the availability of PPE kits, medicines and oxygen. Those who have not taken their third  precautionary COVID vaccine are advised to take them,” said Bishnu Panigrahi, group head, medical strategy and operations, Fortis Healthcare.