Agartala, September 26 (IANS): In view of its high COVID-19 mortality and low recovery rates compared with the other north-eastern states, the Tripura government has begun to implement suggestions given by a visiting central team, a top official said on Saturday.
According to government reports, Tripura topped the death rate among the eight north-eastern states with 1.10 per cent, while the national average is 1.58 per cent. It's recovery rate is 74.54 per cent as against the national figure of 82.14 per cent.
Additional Chief Secretary in-charge of the Health and Family Welfare Department, Sanjay Kumar Rakesh, said the state was implementing the recommendations of the central team that visited Tripura for nine days from September 10.
"In its report, the team made many recommendations and suggestions to improve COVID-19 management in the state. We are also studying the proposals which need funding," Rakesh told IANS over phone.
On the Tripura government's request, the Health Ministry sent the three-member team headed by National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) consultant epidemiologist Daisy Panna to study the rising COVID-19 cases in Tripura.
The other two members were PK Verma, Assistant Professor, Respiratory Medicine, Lady Hardinge Memorial College (LHMC), and Satyajit Sen, Regional Director of Health and Family Welfare Ministry.
The team submitted its report to the Health Ministry and the Tripura government on Thursday.
The team had made more than 50 recommendations and identified many lacunae and shortcomings in COVID-19 management in Tripura.
The report said that there was no death audit review committee and each death must be analysed for modifiable and unmodifiable causes.
"Close monitoring of elderly and high-risk morbid patients is required and district hospital infrastructure be revamped. Hundred per cent testing in high-focus areas should be done," the report said.
Recommending creation of massive awareness among the people and training of health workers, the central team asked the state authorities to convince the people about the importance of face masks, besides enforcement of health guidelines.
Another three-member central team, led by GK Medhi, Professor and Head of Department of Community Medicine at Shillong-based North-Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS), had earlier submitted its report to the state government after studying the source and other aspects of the coronavirus pandemic in Tripura.
