All that was discussed in the House through the day
At present, the import of raw materials such as bulk drugs / active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) from China for preparing medicines has not stopped due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, and India has sufficient stock of medicines, Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers, DV Sadananda Gowda, said in response to a question in Lok Sabha on March 3, 2020.
He added that if the outbreak continued to disrupt manufacturing of APIs in China, then their supplies might be disrupted.
The Department of Pharmaceuticals has constituted a Committee under the chairmanship of Eshwara Reddy, joint drugs controller, Central Drugs Standard Control Organization to address the issue of drug security in the country in the context of the outbreak in China.
Line of treatment protocol
The government had taken note of the outbreak of COVID-19 in China and had initiated steps to monitor the situation in India Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Ashwini Kumar Choubey said in Rajya Sabha.
Choubey informed that the screening of passengers had been initiated at all 21 airports. Universal screening had been made mandatory for all flights from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Nepal, Japan, South Korea, Iran and Italy.
According to Choubey, adequate laboratory reagents were available to test upto 25,000 samples. Sufficient stock of Personal Protective Equipments (PPE) was being maintained and a 24x7 Control Room had been activated. Rapid response Teams of the states / union territories had already been trained in management of MERS-CoV outbreak and Ebola Virus Disease.
Support to discoms difficult
According to the statement by power ministry in Rajya Sabha, the DISCOMs have to become commercially viable as the continued financial support to them may be difficult.
Hence, the states have been to clear their Government Department dues and ensure monthly clearance of the same; put in place a strict system of energy accounting; timely payment of subsidy every month; carry out a campaign to reduce theft and AT&C losses; and conversion of all consumer meters into smart prepaid/prepaid meters in a period of 3 years.
Rural health specialist shortage
India was almost 81 per cent short of specialists in rural Community Health Centres, the data presented by the health ministry in Rajya Sabha, showed on March 3. According to Ashwini Kr Choubey, public health was a state subject and hence all the administrative and personnel matters including those of recruitment of specialist doctors in public health facilities lay with the respective state governments.
High expenditure on cancer treatment
According to the ministry of health, the estimated incidence of cancer cases in India was 15.86 lakh in the year 2018. This was projected to increase to 17.3 lakh by 2020.
The estimated mortality of cancer cases in 2018 was 8.01 lakh. Cancer is diagnosed and treated at various levels in the government health care system, as well as in private hospitals. However, the information regarding the treatment of cancer patients in the private sector is not maintained centrally.
Packaged foods with abnormal salt and fat contents
The health ministry was informed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) about the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) study which alleged that the quantity of salt and fat in the samples tested were higher than the threshold limits proposed in the draft Food Safety and Standards (Labelling & Display) Regulations.
Out of a total 33 samples tested in the said study, 19 samples were of ‘prepared food’ where ‘Front- of-Pack’ Labelling was not applicable.
As far as pre-packaged food items were concerned, the sample size (14 samples) was too small and could not be considered as representative of pre-packaged food industry in the country, stated Choubey in Rajya Sabha on March 3.
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