New Delhi: In all, 42 hotspots identified

New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry on Thursday said it has identified 20 existing and 22 potential hotspots of COVID-19 in the country and asserted that although there is no evidence of widespread community transmission, containment measures will require large human resource.

The ministry said this in an advisory on human resource management of COVID-19 to provide guidance to the states on manpower that can be mobilized for the management of the disease along with possible role assignments and their training requirements. "Although there is no evidence to widespread community transmission, 20 existing and 22 potential hotspots have been identified.

The containment measures to break the cycle of transmission and clinical management of those affected would require large human resource," it said in the document.

The advisory stressed on capacity building, saying identified human resource needs to be trained online using online training programs developed by the ministry. The training for different target groups shall cover areas like field surveillance, contact tracing, sampling, packaging and shipment of specimen, hospital infection prevention and control, including use of appropriate PPEs and biomedical waste management, clinical case management.