Overview
- All states and Union territories must establish chest clinics at community health centres, sub‑district and district hospitals, and medical colleges, with at least two operating hours daily during the September–March peak.
- Clinics will screen for risk factors, confirm diagnoses, provide treatment and long‑term care, and maintain digital records via IHIP with high‑risk registers for follow‑up by ASHA, ANM and Community Health Officers.
- States are instructed to expand sentinel surveillance, and hospitals are to report daily air pollution–related cases and share analyses with state and central authorities for timely action.
- Facilities are directed to train doctors and staff and ensure supplies including medicines, oxygen, nebulisers, ventilators, beds, stretchers, wheelchairs, ambulances and referral mechanisms.
- Guidance identifies children under five, the elderly, pregnant women, people with asthma or heart disease, and low‑income outdoor workers as most vulnerable, and calls for school curbs on outdoor activity, dust control at construction sites, limits on open burning, and protective gear with health checks for workers.