COVID policy-making task force hasn’t met since April

The National Task Force (NTF) on COVID-19, set up by the government in March 2020 to make key policy decisions on tackling the coronavirus, hasn’t met in almost eight months and at least one-fourth of its members have retired.

The NTF last met on April 28, according to an official document. The NTF and its working groups met seven times in 2022 compared with 44 times in 2021 and 108 times in 2020.

The agenda of the April 28 meeting was to discuss current and future trends of COVID-19 and review the evidence for Paxlovid, an antiviral medication developed by Pfizer, according to the document.

The role of the NTF is now in focus as top officials of the health ministry hold meetings to discuss the situation emerging from the spread of a variant of the coronavirus in neighbouring China. According to the health ministry, India detected at least four cases of the BF.7 variant, which is said to be driving the surge in cases in China.

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“Of the four cases of the BF.7 Omicron variant detected in India, three cases were detected from Gujarat and one from Odisha. The cases aren’t new – one was detected in July, two in September and one in November,” the official said.

A key reason for not convening a meeting of the NTF since April was the decline in infections and the case positivity rate, said a health ministry official.

“Since the third week of April, the total number of coronavirus infections in the country has been less than 10,000 overall. Active cases have consistently been less than 0.5 percent and the country’s recovery rate has remained above 98.7 percent,” the official said.

“We have been overseeing the case status. Since the situation is under control, the meetings haven’t been convened,” a member of the NTF said on condition of anonymity.

The Indian Council of Medical Research and the health ministry haven’t responded to queries on the matter.

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Of the seven meetings held so far in 2022, four were of the NTF and three were of its research groups, according to the official document on the website of the ICMR. These are the Diagnostic Group, the Epidemiology & Surveillance Working Group (ESWG), the Operational Research (OR) Group and the Clinical Research Group (CRG).

The NTF was constituted by Balram Bhargava, former secretary in the Department of Health Research and former director of the ICMR. It is chaired by Vinod Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, and co-chaired by Rajesh Bhushan, secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Bhargava.

Need to rejig NTF

The official document of the NTF shows that at least one-fourth of its 24 members are no longer serving in their designated posts.

Bhargava should have been replaced by Rajiv Bahl, who succeeded him as director of the ICMR.

Samiran Panda, the former head of epidemiology, was the facilitator of the NTF and has retired from the ICMR but he hasn’t been replaced on the task force.

Panda told Moneycontrol he was open to participating in the NTF meetings on invitation. Asked why the NTF hadn’t met in over eight months, the former ICMR official said the health minister was regularly holding meetings on the COVID-19 situation.

“Not every meeting has to be done by the NTF. The key policy decisions for safety from COVID are still being taken,” he added.

Randeep Guleria, former director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi who has shifted to Medanta Hospital, is still a member of the task force. Guleria didn't respond to texts and calls.

Sujit Singh, former director of the National Centre for Disease Control, is still a part of the NTF. Singh said meetings have been taking place when needed.

Swarup Sarkar, who was in the NTF as chair of ICMR, is still there even though he is no longer in that official position. Sarkar didn't respond to calls.

Sanjay L Chauhan, the member-secretary of the committee, has retired from ICMR-National Institute for Research in Reproductive and Child Health in Mumbai. Chauhan didn't respond to queries for comment on the matter.