Photo credit: Ganesh Dhamodkar/Wikimedia Commons
Health Secretary writes to 7 States/UTs on recent surge in COVID-19 cases; advises specific measures to be taken
New Delhi: While the Delhi Government on Wednesday announced that COVID-19 test would be mandatory for travellers from Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab from February 27 to March 15, the Centre deputed high level multi-disciplinary teams to Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir for supporting them in public health measures for targeted COVID response and management, and effectively tackling the pandemic.
The three –member multidisciplinary teams are headed by Joint Secretary level officers in the Health Ministry. These teams will work closely with the States/UT administration and ascertain reasons for recent surge in the number of COVID19 cases. They will also coordinate with health authorities of the States/UT for requisite COVID19 control measures to break the chain of transmission. The States/UT has been advised for regular critical review of the emerging situation with concerned District officials to ensure that gains made so far in COVID management are not lost.
The Centre has also written to Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab and Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir which have been witnessing a rise in daily COVID cases, along with decreasing proportion of RT-PCR tests and rise in positivity in some districts.
In the letter written by the Union Health Secretary, he has exhorted Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to focus on undertaking aggressive measures to break the chain of transmission and to ensure that RT-PCR testing is amplified to flush out hitherto undetected cases from the population. These States/UT have been advised to increase testing in a focussed manner in the affected districts with the appropriate split of RT-PCR and Rapid Antigen Tests and to also ensure that all symptomatic negatives of antigen tests are compulsorily tested via RT-PCR tests. The positive persons must be promptly isolated/hospitalised, all their close contacts be traced and also tested without delay.
In last one week, 12 states have reported more than 100 average daily new cases. These are Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Telangana, Delhi and Haryana. Two States, Kerala and Maharashtra both report more than 4,000 average daily new cases in past one week.
19 States/UTs have not reported any COVID19 deaths in last 24 hours. These are Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chandigarh, Assam, Lakshadweep, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, A&N Islands, Sikkim, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, D&D and D&N. Thirteen states have reported 1 to 5 deaths; 2 states have reported 6 to 10 deaths; 1 state has reported 10 to 20 deaths and 1 state has reported more than 20 deaths.
The Centre has reminded the States/UTs that any laxity in implementing stringent measures to curb the spread, especially in view of new strain of virus observed in certain countries, could compound the situation. The Union Health Secretary has separately requested the Chief Secretaries of these 10 States and UTs to provide time to these High Level Central teams to debrief the respective Chief Secretaries at the conclusion of their State visits.
– global bihari bureau
