Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Friday reviewed the Covid-19 situation in 10 States, including Kerala, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. These States have been continuously reporting an increase in either the daily new cases or in the positivity rate.

It is to be noted that more than 80 per cent of the active cases in these States are reported to be in home isolation. Bhushan emphasised the need to effectively and strictly monitor these cases in order to control infection. He reiterated that all districts reporting a positivity rate of more than 10 per cent in the last few weeks need to consider strict restrictions on movement of people, crowding or mingling of people in order to control the spread, according to an official release.

The Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Balram Bhragava, warned against any complacency as about 40,000 cases are still being reported on a daily basis over the last few weeks. He underscored the fact that 46 districts are reporting a positivity rate of over 10 per cent positivity while another 53 have between 5 and 10 per cent. He urged the States to ramp up testing and to conduct their own sero-surveys to generate district-wise disease prevalence data.

Ramping up testing

Bhargava advised the States to ramp up vaccination in the 60+ and 45-60 age categories as evidence shows that nearly 80 per cent of the mortality is from these vulnerable age-groups.

Regarding enforcement measures, he advised the State authorities to clampdown on all non-essential travel and to discourage large gatherings.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW