Amid a rise in Covid-19 cases, the Centre has written to seven states, including Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Delhi, asking them to step up vaccination and testing and renewed attention to ensuring Covid-19 appropriate behaviour.
The letter by Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan warned that the upcoming months are likely to witness mass gatherings due to the onset of festival season, leading to a large number of people undertaking travel within and outside the states. This may potentially facilitate transmission of infectious diseases, including Covid-19, he said.
The states – Karnataka, Delhi, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Telangana – with higher case load have been asked to closely monitor districts reporting higher cases, positivity rates and clusters to prevent further spread of infection and effective case management.
Bhushan also instructed states to monitor and report district-wise influenza-like illness (ILI) and SARI (severe acute respiratory illness) cases in all health facilities on a regular basis for detecting early warning signals of the spread of infection. This would help authorities to take pre-emptive action in any areas of concern.
In his letter to Karnataka, Principal Secretary (Health) TK Anil Kumar, Bhushan said the state has been reporting high average daily new cases since past one month – 1,355 average cases/day – with a high of 1,992 cases on August 5.
“The state has contributed to 10.1% of India's weekly cases in the week ending August 5 and has also recorded 1.28 times increase in average daily new cases from 1,435 (week ending July 29) to 1,837 (week ending August 5). An increase in the weekly positivity rate was also reported from 5.30% to 6.8%” during the same period, Bhushan said.
The letter put renewed emphasis on ensuring Covid-19 appropriate behaviour in crowded places while asking the states to increase the pace of vaccination for all eligible populations and accelerate the administration of free precaution doses for all above 18 years under the Covid Vaccination Amrit Mahotsav till September 30.
Bhushan also asked the states to follow the five-fold strategy – test, track, treat, vaccinate and adherence to Covid-19 appropriate behaviours.