New Delhi|Ekta
Amidst a gradual spike in COVID-19 cases in several states, Union Health Ministry geared-up and initiated various activities including massive country-wide exercise in India’s fight against COVID-19, a two-day COVID-19 mock drill was conducted successfully at 35 States/UTs across 724 districts.
Last week the Union Health Ministry had written to States and UTs to conduct mock drills on 10th and 11th April, 2023 across all health facilities, including COVID dedicated healthcare facilities to evaluate their level of preparedness, in terms of equipment, procedure and manpower.
On 7th April 2023, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya had chaired a meeting with State Health Ministers and urged them to conduct mock drills of all health facilities and requested them to review preparedness with District Administration and Public Health Officials.
Critical medical infrastructure and resources including oxygen beds, isolation beds, ventilators, PSA plants, LMO, Oxygen concentrators, Oxygen cylinders as well as medicines and PPE kits were assessed and medical staff were oriented on management of COVID-19 during the drills.
In preparation of the nationwide mock drill, online training with State and District Surveillance Units were also conducted on 4th, 5th and 6th April 2023. These trainings focused on the role to be played by State and District Surveillance Units, data fields to be updated, type of facilities to be covered and details of helpline for States/UTs facing any difficulty on feeding data on COVID-19 India Portal. A total of 1544 participants took part in the preparatory training.
