New Delhi,
The Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 in a meeting on Thursday discussed the containment and management plans for the novel coronavirus, the government said in a statement.
The GoM, headed by Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan also discussed the actions taken so far by the central and state governments to check the spread of the disease.
The meeting was attended by Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Minister of State for Home, Nityananda Rai, Minister of State for Shipping, and Chemical and Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviya and Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey,
Member (Health), NITI Aayog, Vinod K Paul and Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat were also present.
The current status of social distancing measures being implemented to break the chain of transmission of the coronavirus was also taken up at the GoM meeting.
The statement issued by the Union health ministry said that the GoM was informed that all districts have been asked to prepare and strengthen their contingency plans to combat the pandemic.
It said several other measures about strengthening capacity of states, including devoting adequate resources for creating dedicated COVID-19 hospitals, equipping medical institutes with PPE, ventilators and other essential equipment, were also discussed in detail. States have been asked to identify COVID-19 centres and hospitals, the statement said.
“The GoM also reviewed the testing strategy and availability of testing kits across the country along with the strategy for hotspots and cluster management. The GoM was apprised regarding the adequacy and availability of PPE, masks, ventilators, drugs and other essential equipment against the requirement,” the statement said.
The GoM was informed that domestic manufactures have been identified for production of PPE and orders have been placed, it said. In addition, order for ventilators has also been placed, the ministry said in the statement.( PTI )
