Covid-19: Centre asks States and UTs to maintain surveillance

Union Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Saturday sent letters to Kerala, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Puducherry, Manipur, West Bengal, Nagaland and Sikkim asking them to have a strategic containment intervention in identified areas with test positivity date of 10 per cent and more than 60 per cent bed occupancy on either Oxygen supported of ICU beds.

New Delhi:The Centre on Saturday wrote letters to States and UTs which have been reporting an increase in Covid-19 cases. Union Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan sent letters to Kerala, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Puducherry, Manipur, West Bengal, Nagaland and Sikkim asking them to have a strategic containment intervention in identified areas with test positivity date of 10 per cent and more than 60 per cent bed occupancy on either Oxygen supported of ICU beds.

The containment measures should be night curfew, restricting intermingling of people, prohibition of the congregation (socio, political, sports, entertainment academic, cultural, religious festival-related) and curtailment of attendees of marriage and funerals etc, Bhushan said in his letter.

"With the recent trend of sustained and overall decline in Covid cases in the country, we are critically placed in our fight against the pandemic. Eight districts in three States have been reporting more than 10 per cent positive rates in the past two weeks. Further, 19 districts in seven States and UTs have been reporting positivity rates between 5 per cent and I0 per cent in the past two weeks. Thus these 27 districts need to be monitored very closely," Bhushan said in his letter.

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Bhushan said that it is imperative for all States and UTs to maintain a strict watch on the situation with focused district-level measures for containment of clusters of positive cases as per the guidelines.

"In case of any district reporting a surge in cases, or rise in positivity rate, intensive action and local containment as per the containment framework must be initiated," Bhushan said.

Apart from strict adherence to Covid appropriate behaviour, Bhushan in his letter said that testing and surveillance interventions including ramping up testing and active case search should be there.

As per health ministry statistics, five districts in Mizoram, two districts in Kerala and one district in Sikkim have been reporting more than 10 per cent positivity rate. Similarly, nine districts in Kerala, five districts in Mizoram, one in Arunachal Pradesh, one in Puducherry, one in Manipur, one in West Bengal and one district in Nagaland have been reporting positivity rate between 5 to 10 per cent.