Bihar govt to upload all influenza-like illness cases on integrated health information platform

Patna: The Bihar government has instructed officials to upload all cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) on the Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) in view of the recent spurt in Covid-19 cases in several parts of the country.

In a letter to all district magistrates (DMs), heads of all medical colleges and hospitals and civil surgeons on December 22, additional chief secretary (state health department ) Pratyay Amrit said, "The trends of ILI and SARI cases must be closely monitored by the authorities concerned in the state and all cases must be uploaded on the IHIP website. The health department must ramp up the testing rate and adequate availability of drugs, equipment, oxygen cylinders and manpower be ensured at all hospitals".

Two Covid-19 cases have so far been detected in the state. One of the patients had returned from Kerala recently and another from Assam. The samples of the two patients were tested at IGIMS and ESIC Hospital, Bihta, respectively. Of the two patients, one has been advised home isolation.

Talking to PTI on Saturday, Patna civil surgeon Shravan Kumar said, "However, it could not be confirmed whether the patients are infected with the new sub variant JN.1. The variant will be known only after genome sequencing. Random coronavirus testing at airport and railway stations are being carried out in the district. Following the instruction from the state government, we have intensified the process of collection and testing of samples in the state capital. We collected 638 samples for further testing in the district on Friday".

It may be recalled that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday chaired a high-level meeting here following the recent spurt in Covid-19 cases in several parts of the country.

The meeting was also attended by Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, who holds the health portfolio, and top government officials.

The CM called for spread of awareness about Covid-appropriate behaviour through social media and other channels, and issued instructions that hospital staff must be told to wear masks.

A rise in daily positivity rate has been observed in a few states like Kerala, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Karnataka.