Medical services restored to pre-Covid-19 level in Uttar Pradesh

‘Following the continuous decline in the number of Covid-19 cases and active infections, the Uttar Pradesh government has directed state medical colleges and institutions to fully restore all outpatient and in patient services.

‘The order issued by the chief minister’s office on Friday has to be implemented with immediate effect. “Following the decline in the prevalence of coronavirus pandemic, all outdoor and inpatient services must be restored at the earliest so that people in need can have access to the required help.” 

Read here (Times of India, Feb 13, 2021)

From control rooms to testing, several strategies helped Uttar Pradesh contain pandemic

‘Several factors distinguish the handling of the pandemic in the state but I aim to discuss a few in this article. Of the many innovative steps taken there are three clear winners. 

‘First is the setting up of Team 11 — a group of 11 senior government officials tasked with managing different aspects like surveillance and contact tracing, testing and treatment, sanitisation, containment, enforcement, doorstep delivery, issues of migrants, communication strategy, etc — in March itself...

‘The second winner is the Integrated Covid Command and Control Centre (ICCC) set up in every district. This is the nerve centre of pandemic management in the district, sending testing teams to different areas as per plan, ensuring surveillance and contact tracing, sending positive patients to different Covid hospitals or placing them under home isolation...

‘The third winner is the integrated data management portal (upcovid19tracks.in). It provides us with the ability to crunch and analyse data on a daily basis... 

‘Let me also discuss two strategic interventions, out of many, which we have taken. 

‘The first is the widespread use of the drug, ivermectin, not just for treatment of cases but also as a prophylactic. The state government provides free medicines to all patients in home isolation or in government COVID-19 facilities, which have more than 1.5 lakh beds. We have used the combination of ivermectin and doxycyclin to successfully treat over three lakh home-isolated patients with mild symptoms so far. This combination has also been used by the hospitals across the state for admitted COVID-19 patients. But what is more interesting is the state’s successful use of ivermectin as a prophylactic.

‘The second strategic intervention is the targeted testing of selected groups. We started doing this in June with residents of urban slums, workers at nursing homes, pharmacy shops, bus and auto drivers, shopkeepers, security guards in malls, hospitals, etc.’  

Read here (Indian Express, Dec 17, 2021) 

Early and systematic tracking of high-risk contacts helped Uttar Pradesh step up the fight against Covid-19

‘The state of Uttar Pradesh continues to be one of the high-burden states and reported 474 054 cases and 6940 fatalities as of 27 October 2020. Being the most populous state of India, with a population of more than 199 812 341 (as per 2011 census), its fight against COVID-19 has been particularly challenging. When the cases surged post lifting of restrictions, as part of its surveillance response activities with support from WHO, the state government put in place a mechanism to evaluate the status and quality of contact tracing to guide policy level decision making for an informed public health response.

‘The World Health Organization (WHO)- National Public Health Surveillance Project (NPSP) team of medical officers along with 800 field monitors undertook a massive exercise to assess the status and quality of contact tracing amongst the 58 000 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in 75 districts across the state during two weeks from 01-14 August 2020...

‘This massive effort led to identification of several cases that would not have been otherwise detected and helped in containing the further spread of the disease. Quality assessment exercise also enabled improved data collection and allowed authorities to make evidence-based decisions on containment measures. The government also deployed more teams to strengthen surveillance activities in districts with high-case load.

‘Acknowledging the key role of contact tracing as an essential public health tool for controlling disease outbreaks, Dr Roderico Ofrin, WHO Country Representative to India shares that systematic tracking of contacts through a proper mechanism is key, along with a well-trained health workforce to implement the surveillance activities.

“The UP government’s strategic response to COVID-19 by stepping up contact tracing efforts is exemplary and can serve as a good example for other states”, he adds.’

Read here (WHO, Nov 12, 2020)