From today, two-day nationwide mock drill will be held to assess preparedness

In the midst of an increase in Covid-19 cases, a nationwide mock drill to assess hospital preparedness will be held on April 10 and 11, with both public and private facilities expected to participate. Officials said on Sunday that Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will visit AIIMS, Jhajjar on April 10 to oversee the mock drill. Mandaviya urged state health ministers to visit hospitals and oversee the mock drills at a review meeting on April 7. He also advised them to conduct a readiness review with district administrations and health officials on April 8 and 9. Mandaviya emphasised the importance of identifying emergency hotspots by monitoring trends in influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) cases, ramping up testing and vaccination, and ensuring hospital infrastructure readiness in a virtual meeting with state health ministers and principal and additional chief secretaries. It was discovered during the meeting that 23 states and union territories had average tests per million that were lower than the national average. States and union territories were also asked to quickly increase testing rates from 100 tests per million in the week ending April 7. They were also advised to increase the proportion of RT-PCR in tests.