Nagpur: The experts appointed by the state government through Unicef (United Nations Children’s Fund) and NGO RedR India have suggested 200-300 tests per day per lakh population, self-testing by citizens, and organizations taking ownership of their own people to mitigate third wave of Covid-19 pandemic.
They also advised vaccination of all eligible people and participation of the public in controlling the pandemic through Covid Appropriate Behaviour (CAB).
Disaster risk governance specialist Amit Tandon, and public health expert Dr Shailaja Gaikwad from Unicef and RedR have submitted Covid-19 Third Wave Management Plan to Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) recently.
During the second wave, on April 26, the State Disaster Management Authority through Unicef and RedR had deployed disaster risk governance specialist and public health expert in four districts — Mumbai, Nagpur, Nashik and Pune, which were witnessing huge spike in cases and deaths.
They have been given responsibility to plan and help authorities contain the spread, control deaths and effectively respond to vaccine hesitancy.
Accordingly, Tandon and Gaikwad completed their analysis and prepared the plan.
Tandon told TOI, “Some global best practices suggest testing 200-300 (unique) tests per day per 1 lakh population, depending on the caseload.
In the city, NMC has facilitated testing centres in sufficient numbers and in all parts.
Awareness is required among people about importance of testing, and early detection and treatment.
If all those with symptoms or in contact with positive patient are tested, it will help find any cluster of patients, or sudden surge in a particular area, behaviour of the virus, and allow containment measures to be taken by NMC.” Tandon added that testing of transient populations will also be very beneficial.
“Testing of people running shops, vendors, home delivery boys etc who meet multiple people daily should be done once in a fortnight.
Owners of these establishments along with private and government offices should take responsibility of their own people.
If they manage to test and isolate symptomatic or infected person, it will help contain the spread to a great extent.
NMC has facilitated testing at your premises campaign for citizens and businessmen, who can get tests free of cost in their areas,” he said.
Tandon also said testing of ILI, SARI, comorbid and people residing in slums in case of any symptoms is must to contain spread and control deaths.
“Slum Task Force should be appointed in association with NGOs,” he said.
As per data of district civil surgeon, average daily testing of the district was 9,150 in June and 6,821 in city.
As per experts, there should be 10,546-15,819 tests per day in district and 5,800-8,700 per day in the city.
The experts worked out key assumptions, risk management cycle, mitigation measures, preparedness and role of stakeholders in the plan.
NMC additional municipal commissioner Ram Joshi said, “Plan is very good and helpful, so it has been implemented.
We have already benefitted from suggestions and help of these experts.
They are daily in touch tests with the team working at state-level in Covid-19 so we get all types of help and information easily.
They have expertise in pandemics and health sector, which is another advantage.
They are very sound in technology and helped us plan vaccination of foreign students, launch testing at your premises campaign etc.
They conduct survey and analysis in any subject which we assign them on day to day basis.
They have been very helpful in planning daily vaccination and removing hesitancy in people and societies.” For preparing the plan, Tandon and Dr Gaikwad have taken the guidance of senior advisor of National Rural Health Mission Dr Mridula Phadke and founder member of National Disaster Management Authority professor Vinod Menon.
SUGGESTIONS IN THIRD WAVE MANAGEMENT PLAN * Assess current capacity of beds, oxygen supply etc as Covid-19 impacts routine immunization activities and institutional care for pregnant women.
Augmenting capacities will ensure routine public health care is not hampered * In second wave, approximately 56% of deceased were in age group of 25-65, out of which 63% were male.
This indicates cascading impact on women and children, and they need to be at core of recovery interventions * Covid-19 impacted financial status of people and it has cascading impact on nutrition, maternal health, child protection issues etc.
Close scrutiny required for additional impact on people * In case of third wave, coordinated response needed.
NMC has functional Central Control Room with potential to scale into incident response system.
NDMA recommends a GO-NGO coordination system for recovery and response * NMC doing extremely well in immunization, but there are some barriers.
Need is to build on motivating factors with constructive conversation with people who show hesitancy