Health officials ramp up Covid vigil amid rising cases

Amid rising Covid-19 cases across the country and an alert issued by the State Health Department, Chamba Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Bipen Thakur has released an advisory to all health blocks in the district, stressing the need for heightened monitoring and preparedness.

Dr Thakur stated that the Himachal Pradesh Health Department has directed all medical colleges and district hospitals to intensify surveillance and prepare for a potential surge in cases. In line with this, the National Health Mission has issued comprehensive guidelines mandating daily reporting of severe respiratory illness (SRI) cases from OPD and IPD departments via the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) portal.

To ensure readiness, the advisory urges hospitals to bolster their healthcare infrastructure. This includes maintaining adequate bed capacity, ensuring an uninterrupted supply of oxygen and stocking essential equipment such as ventilators, oxygen concentrators, PSA oxygen plants, antibiotics and other critical medicines.

Dr Thakur stressed that any positive case of Covid or flu must be promptly reported to the district and state surveillance units to help track trends and enable timely preventive measures.

He also appealed to the public to adhere strictly to “Covid-appropriate behaviour,” including maintaining hand hygiene, wearing masks in public spaces and avoiding crowded places.

Highlighting the common symptoms shared by Covid and the flu, Dr Thakur noted that individuals may experience dry cough, nasal congestion, headache, sore throat, fever and fatigue. In some instances, loss of taste or smell may also occur. Given the similarity of symptoms, he emphasised the importance of vigilance and timely testing.