Mandaviya chairs meet: Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday (June 21) chaired a high-level meeting with the representatives of seven states experiencing severe heatwaves and stressed that with effective disaster response and management and with coordinated actions between the Centre and states, it can be ensured that there are no death incidents due to heatwaves.
The Health Minister chaired the meeting to review the public health preparedness for the management of heat-related illnesses virtually and also interacted with the state health ministers, state disaster management ministers and principal secretaries/additional chief secretaries, and information commissioners of seven states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana.
What Mandaviya said
“India has demonstrated during the recent preparedness measures for cyclone Biparjoy that timely and effective coordination between the Centre and states can produce the desired outcome,” he said.
“Sharing of ideas, expertise, and best practices by states help in enriching everyone in effectively managing heat-related illnesses,” the Minister added. Mandaviya urged the states to adhere to the State Action Plan, which is based on the National Action Plan at the ground level with a timely warning to the people.
The Minister asked the states which have yet not prepared the action plan to deal with the heatwave to do so urgently and ensure effective implementation of the same.
Mandaviya said that the Union Health Ministry shares India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) forecasts and high alert are shared with all the states and urged them to create training manuals on heat and health for the state officials, medical officers, and health workers.
“State-level trainers need to ensure that their training is up to field level. Capacity building of medical officers, health staff and sensitization of grassroots level workers on heat illness, with focus on early recognition and management using training manuals provided by the Union Health Ministry is crucial," he stated.
What the Health Ministry said
According to a statement by the Health Ministry, the states were advised to boost the resiliency to extreme heat at the health facilities level by ensuring uninterrupted electricity supply; installation of solar panels, and adopting measures to reduce indoor heat through installation of cool/green roof, window shading, shades, etc.
Nityanand Rai, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, was present at the meeting, while Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar, Union Minister of State for Health, S P Baghel, Union Minister of State for Health, and Dr. V K Paul, Member (Health) of NITI Aayog, were present in the virtual mode.
Rai highlighted the lack of accurate data from the ground and urged the states to share the field-level data on heatwaves, including on deaths and cases so that a realistic assessment can be made.
(With PTI inputs)
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