Centre asks 4 states, UT to be wary of water-borne diseases

The Centre has directed four states and a Union Territory to ramp up healthcare facilities in their coastal areas over fears of an outbreak of water- and vector-borne diseases as eastern India braces for a cyclonic storm on May 26.

The health ministry’s alert has gone to Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In a letter to the chief secretaries, Rajesh Bhushan, secretary (health), said, “Public health challenge already posed by the Covid-19 pandemic may be compounded due to direct impact of Covid and public health risks posed in terms of waterborne, vector borne and airborne diseases that may arise in the community or in the displaced population in camps/ temporary shelter settings.”

The Indian Meteorological Department had warned on Thursday that low pressure is likely to form over North Andaman Sea and likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm by May 24.


The health ministry has asked the four states and Andaman and Nicobar Islands to activate the command centre and emergency control room, disaster management plant, reorient district surveillance units mobilised for Covid-19 management on possible outbreak of epidemic prone diseases like influenza, measles, acute diarrhoeal diseases, dysentery, leptospirosis, dengue and malaria.

The states have been asked to ensure power backup for hospitals, laboratories, Covid-19 vaccine cold chains and oxygen generation. The Centre has said hospitals should be provided HAM radio connections and satellite phones as communication would be disrupted due to the storm.

“Senior citizens and those suffering from diabetes, hypertension, liver/ kidney, respiratory disease, immune compromised diseases need to be specifically monitored with Covid perspective as they constitute people under high risk,” Bhushan’s letter said.

The states and UT have been advised to follow IMD’s updates on North Andaman Sea and plan evacuation of hospitals that come in the path of the cyclone.

“Based on the forecast on the morning of May 24, once the landfall and intensity of cyclonic storm is predicted, evacuation of the hospitals in the path of the cyclone in districts of Odisha, West Bengal and other areas may be planned in advance,” Bhushan said.