Ayushman Bharat gets ready for coronavirus cover as cases rise in India

Flagship scheme data being tracked to spot unusual patterns

The National Health Authority is on a war footing to ready a COVID-19 special package under the government’s flagship Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY scheme as the number of coronavirus cases continue to rise and many states go for a lockdown. NHA chief executive Indu Bhushan told Business Standard that this is among the steps being taken by the Authority just in case there’s a need. Specific coronavirus-related plans for isolation wards are being finetuned, after which it would be reviewed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in terms of protocol. It will have to be approved by the NHA’s governing board after that. Officials pointed out that such a package would be needed if coronavirus spreads to the community level.

Currently, the Ayushman-PMJAY scheme, which does not deal with preventive healthcare cover, offers hospitalisation packages for intensive care units, high-dependency units and normal wards. There’s no provision for isolation wards under the universal health assurance scheme, which caters to underprivileged citizens with an annual cover of Rs 5 lakh per family. Since isolation wards, a necessity for patients infected with the virus, will be like private wards, the cost, to be borne by PMJAY, will be significantly higher. NHA is also keeping a close watch on its live data as well as on the call centre details that the Ayushman scheme sits on to detect any unusual pattern. The measure is expected to help in minimising the impact of coronavirus in India, Bhushan said.

Ayushman Bharat gets ready for coronavirus cover as cases rise in India Officials monitoring the data at Ayushman are looking for unusual spikes in influenza like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI). If there’s any abnormal increase, this has to be reported to ICMR to ensure there’s no outbreak. Officials said that this data would not be shared without proper vetting. Similarly, PMJAY officials are sifting through the data from call centres carefully.

How long will coronavirus live on surfaces or in the air around you?

A new study could have implications for how the general public and health care workers try to avoid transmission of the virus

The coronavirus can live for three days on some surfaces, like plastic and steel, new research suggests. Experts say the risk of consumers getting infected from touching those materials is still low, although they offered additional warnings about how long the virus survives in air, which may have important implications for medical workers. The new study, published Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, also suggests that the virus disintegrates over the course of a day on cardboard, lessening the worry among consumers that deliveries will spread the virus during this period of staying and working from home.

When the virus becomes suspended in droplets smaller than 5 micrometers — known as aerosols — it can stay suspended for about a half-hour, researchers said, before drifting down and settling on surfaces where it can linger for hours. The finding on aerosol in particular is inconsistent with the World Health Organization’s position that the virus is not transported by air. The Coronavirus lives longest on plastic and steel, surviving for up to 72 hours. But the amount of viable virus decreases sharply over this time. It also does poorly on copper, surviving four hours. On cardboard, it survives up to 24 hours, which suggests packages that arrive in the mail should have only low levels of the virus — unless the delivery person has coughed or sneezed on it or has handled it with contaminated hands.

That’s true in general. Unless the people who handle any of these materials are sick, the actual risk of getting infected from any of these materials is low, experts said. “Everything at the grocery store and restaurant takeout containers and bags could in theory have infectious virus on them,” said Dr. Linsey Marr, who was not a member of the research team but is an expert in the transmission of viruses by aerosol at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. “We could go crazy discussing these ‘what-ifs’ because everyone is a potential source, so we have to focus on the biggest risks.”

Catch Our live Updates on Coronaoutbreak

Covid-19 forces NRAI to ask over 500,000 eateries to shut down till Mar 31

This directive is also in line with the orders of several state governments asking malls, pubs, spas, and multiplexes to shut down till March 31

As coronavirus spreads its footprint across the nation, the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), representing over 500,000 eateries across India, has asked its members to shutter down till March 31, reported The Hindu Business Line. This directive is also in line with the orders of several state governments asking malls, pubs, spas, and multiplexes to shut down till March 31. The state governments have also restricted gathering of more than 50 people.

Anurag Katriar, President, NRAI said, “We were in discussion on this matter for the past 24 hours with our members. So we have now decided to advise our members to suspend operations of their restaurants till March 31. We feel this step needs to be taken keeping in mind the safety and health of our employees as well as guests.” “While this will lead to losses for the industry but as responsible corporate citizens we believe its our duty to take such a measure for the safety of employees as well as customers,” he added. Other than NRAI, Railways cancelled 85 low-occupancy trains to contain the coronavirus. Railways employees and catering staff with fever, cough, runny nose or difficulty in breathing were barred from the “business of food handling”…

Catch All live Updates on Coronavirus