Amid the grueling impact of the intense heatwave, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday chaired a high-level meeting to review the country’s preparedness.
During the meeting, Mandaviya said that a five-member team, comprising senior officials from the Health Ministry, and Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), will visit states that are worst affected by the heatwave.
The Health Minister also said that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has been ordered to recommend measures to minimise the adverse effect of heatwave conditions.
“Arrangements will be made at every level for the protection of common life. We want to ensure no one does of a heat stroke,” Mandaviya said during the meeting on Tuesday,
Moreover, he said a virtual meeting will be held with the health ministers of the states reeling under severe heatwave.
“IMD had predicted the possibility of heatwaves. Keeping this in mind, PM Modi had conducted a meeting in February this year. He had asked centre and state governments to prepare an action plan for heatstroke due to heatwave. The Health Ministry prepared National Action Plan for Heat-Related Illness in 2021. We also declared an advisory. Currently, lot of states are affected due to heatwave,” Mandaviya said.
He also said that in states like Odisha, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Telangana, Bihar, and Jharkhand heatwave is still underway. “I will conduct meeting with Disaster Management officers associated with these states and their ministers over video conference tomorrow,” he said.
The meeting was attended by Rajesh Bhushan Secretary, M/o HFW, Sudhansh Pant, OSD, M/o HFW, Dr. Rajiv Bahl, Secretary, DHR, S. Gopalakrishnan, Special Secretary, M/o HFW, Lav Aggarwal, Addl. Secretary, MoHFW, Dr. M.Srinivas, Director, AIIMS, Dr. Atul Goel, DGHS and Director, NCDC, Dr. N. K Arora, Head of Covid Task Force, NTAGI, Dr. M. Mahapatra, DGM, IMD and other senior officers of the Union Government.
On Sunday, at least 14 new deaths and 178 admissions were reported from the Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia district hospital within 24 hours.