Experience of setting up of Control room for COVID-19 at NCDC, New Delhi

Kanica Kaushal; Meera Dhuria; Warisha Mariam; S K Jain; Sujeet Singh; Suneela Garg; Arun Chauhan; Ram Singh

doi:10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1826_20

Experience of setting up of Control room for COVID-19 at NCDC, New Delhi

J Family Med Prim Care. 2021 Mar;10(3):1082-1085. doi: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1826_20. Epub 2021 Apr 8.

Authors

Kanica Kaushal¹, Meera Dhuria², Warisha Mariam³, S K Jain⁴, Sujeet Singh⁵, Suneela Garg³, Arun Chauhan⁶, Ram Singh⁷

Affiliations

¹ Public Health Consultant, SAFETY-NET, National Centre for Disease Control, New Delhi, India.
² Deputy Director, National Centre for Disease Control, New Delhi, India.
³ Department of Community Medicine, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India.
⁴ Additional Director and HOD Epidemiology Division, National Centre for Disease Control, New Delhi, India.
⁵ Director, National Centre for Disease Control, New Delhi, India.
⁶ Consultant, National Centre for Disease Control, New Delhi, India.
⁷ Additional Director, National Centre for Disease Control, New Delhi, India.

Abstract

Significant public health events of the 21^st century include epidemic prone diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), influenza A (H1N1), Ebola virus disease, and coronavirus (SARS-COV-2). Preparedness as well as risk mitigation strategies play an integral role for the success of responses to such health emergencies. An extraordinary cluster of cases of respiratory disease of unknown cause triggered a series of events that constituted a public health risk across the globe through international spread from China and was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on 30 January, 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO). To monitor implementation of activities in order to contain the local transmission of COVID-2019 in India, a control room was established at the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), New Delhi on 23^rd January, 2020 under the Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP). The main objectives of the control room were to alleviate the concerns and address queries of passengers arriving from the affected countries and also to provide the general public information regarding the measures to be taken as well as the contact details of the respected district health authorities for further necessary action. A total of 183 hunting lines were established at the NCDC, Noida, TB Centre, and the National Health Authority (NHA) Hyderabad and Bengaluru by March 2020. A total of 79,013 calls, 1,04,779 emails, and 1,787 international calls were received w.e.f. 23 January to 30 March, 2020 at the NCDC control room. The NHA Bengaluru and Hyderabad Control room received 3,52,176 calls w.e.f. 15 March to 30 March and TB Noida control room received 55,018 calls w.e.f. 16 March to 30 March, 2020. This prompt action of the center to set up a control room at the NCDC gave the states enough grace period to train their staff and start their individual help lines for addressing people's queries and allay fears.

Keywords: Control room; Covid-19; pandemic.