Centre asks states to impose curbs if Covid positivity rate climbs

The Centre on Saturday asked states to impose measures such as night curfew and prohibit congregation in areas where Covid-19 positivity rate is more than 10% and there is a rise in demand for oxygen beds.

While there are only eight such districts at the moment, states have been advised to keep a close watch on 19 additional districts, which have as many as 70 Covid clusters and a positivity rate between 5 and 10%.

The directive comes amid the global scare over Omicron, which has now spread to 59 nations, and experts' fear over a possible rise in cases in India in January-February since this had been the experience of countries with high levels of vaccination such as Israel and the UK.

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The best risk-reduction strategies, according to them, still are mask-wearing, ventilation, physical distancing and stepping up vaccination.

In a letter to state chief secretaries, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan advised them to impose containment measures in areas where the test positivity rate is equal to or greater than 10%, or where the occupancy of oxygen/ICU beds is more than 60%.

A watchful eye is to be kept on the emerging severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) and influenza-like illness (ILI) situations as winter sets in.

The government didn’t release any information of the list of the 70 clusters, but many of them would be in the 30-odd districts in six states, where new cases witnessed a sharp rise in the last two weeks of November.

The increase was 726% in Kathua (J&K), 666% in Dhenkanal and 250% in Kandhamal (both in Odisha) and 152% in Tumakuru. Bengaluru Urban is also one of the districts flagged by the Centre.

The curbs would include night curfews, curb on intermingling of people, prohibition of all types of congregations (social, political, sports, entertainment, academic, cultural, religious, and festival-related) and curtailment of attendees in marriages and funerals.

The caution comes at a time when 59 countries including India have reported nearly 3,000 cases of the new variant. The 32 omicron cases found in India so far are mild in nature, but government officials and health experts are keeping their fingers crossed.

“The next two weeks are important to know how much more they will spread in India,'' said a top ICMR official.

Bhushan asked the states to ramp up testing and active-case search of all SARI and ILI cases through rapid antigen tests and retesting by RT-PCR of symptomatic RAT-negative tests.

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