NITI Aayog CEO lists ten best practices to combat COVID-19

NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Monday shared ten best practices in a bid to bolster India’s efforts against Covid-19 pandemic.

The first step says that testing has to be extensive since it is the most powerful tool to defeat Covid-19. “Global and Indian success stories have strategies grounded in a robust testing mechanism,” it said.

Citing the example of New Zealand, Kant said that country ramped up its diagnostic testing and was able to eliminate the virus and added that the success of Indian states like Kerala and Karnataka can be attributed to their willingness and resolve to test more.

Second, he said that contact tracing has to be rigorous. “The example of South Korea shows that a robust contact-tracing strategy is a must. In New Zealand, an innovative model encourages people to scan QR codes placed at different locations to create a repository of their movement.”

The third practice that Kant advocates is the effective and timely treatment to ensure a high recovery rate, saying that it can be achieved through timely reporting of symptoms, early identification and admission of high-risk individuals.

The fourth is institutional quarantine — the virus has to be tackled at the source and countries that were able to proactively impose quarantine on incoming passengers at airports are better off today, he said.

The fifth practice should be stringent employment of containment measure. “Lockdowns cannot be a permanent solution and this is where stringent containment comes into the picture,” he added.

The sixth measure stressed that the maximum use of data analytics and to bring data transparency to draw meaningful insights to help guide strategies.

Seventh is the leverage technology. “Manual interventions have to be supplemented by cutting-edge technologies that should form the backbone of efforts,” he said.

Moreover, enforcement plays a major role in ensuring that rules that have been instituted to curb the spread of the virus are observed strictly.

The ninth practice is online training and protocols that help impart knowledge to frontline workers to ensures that they are aware of the necessary protocols, emerging trends and relevant best practices in areas.

Lastly, Kant said that public adherence and community participation is a must since efforts of the government are futile unless observed by citizens. – ANI