Central Covid team suggests full lockdown in Kolhapur and Sangli districts of Maharashtra: Report

Following a high Covid-19 positivity rate being recorded in 10 districts of Maharashtra, a Central team of experts visited top districts of concern, Kolhapur and Sangli, and suggested a total lockdown, according to a report by The Indian Express.

As per the Ministry of Health's data, in the past seven days, Kolhapur and Sangli reported a positivity rate of 8.12 and 8.52, respectively. Between July 13 and July 19, the Nandurbar district stood first on the list with the highest Covid-19 positivity rate of 11.65.

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“There are 10 districts which have a higher positivity rate as compared to the rest of the state and the Central team that visited some of them has emphasised on measures like testing, contact tracing, and vaccination…We are following all protocols,” Rajesh Tope, state health minister, told the publication.

The Central team was concerned about the transmission in these districts as despite routine measures the cases were not dropping. Dr Sujeet Singh, Director of National Centre for Disease Control, said that the authorities were checking if the cause of the unstoppable spread was due to a variant of concern.

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According to Dr Shashank Joshi, expert with the state Covid-19 task force, the trend of coronavirus infection in districts such as Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara, Pune rural, Ahmednagar and Nandurbar is concerning. He also mentioned, “We have an active virus in circulation and something is not going right.”