NITI Aayog today released acompendium of practices from states and union territories that details information about various initiatives implemented by states, districts, and cities in India for containing and managing the Covid-19 outbreak.The compendiumwas released by NITI Aayog Member Dr VK Paul, CEO Amitabh Kant and Additional Secretary Dr Rakesh Sarwal.Over the past several months, the world has been facing an unprecedented public health crisis in the form of Covid-19. States and union territories have been equal partners of the Central Government in managing the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.“While there is much to be gained by learning from global practices for tackling the pandemic, it is equally important to take note of practices that are grounded in our realities. Instead of expecting every state to reinvent the wheel, dissemination of such practices allows them to learn from each other and help find solutions to common problems,” wrote NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant in the foreword.In preparing the compendium of practices, NITI Aayog reached out to all states and union territoriesby email and telephonically, requesting them to share any practices that they believe had been useful for Covid-19 mitigation and management.
Additional information was provided by some states during review meetings with Member (Health), NITI Aayog. Sourcing of information directly from states/UTs was supplemented with a comprehensive literature review.The practices in the compendium have been disaggregated under six sections: (i) public health and clinical response (ii) governance mechanisms (iii) digital health (iv) integrated model (v) welfare of migrants and other vulnerable groups (vi) other practices. A summary of the relevant Government of India guidelines has been included for theaforementioned categories, wherever applicable.Practices adopted by states/UTs in the fight against Covid-19 range from preparation of comprehensive route maps for contact tracing to operationalization of mobile vans for testing and providing essential health services to the doorsteps of people. Technology has been leveraged extensively by several states and UTs,including the use of robots for delivering food, water, and medicines to patients in hospitals as well as training health personnel using virtual platforms. Start-ups have been at the forefront of several technological innovations, such as the development of appsoffering telemedicine services. Civil society organizations too have worked closely with state governments and district administrations to set up control rooms for Covid management, enable the delivery of door-to-door food supplies, and mobilize self-help groups for making masks and sanitizers.