JOIN USCentre asks states to ease Covid-19 restrictions
With Covid numbers on a steady decline, the Union Health Ministry has asked the states to do away with restrictions imposed at their borders to facilitate people’s movement and boost economic activities.
“As the case trajectory across the nation is showing a sustained downward trend, it will be useful if the states and union territories either amend or do away with the additional restrictions so imposed, after considering the trend of new cases, active cases and positivity within the state,” Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan wrote to the states on Tuesday.
From a high of nearly 3.5 lakh new cases in a day in the third week of January, the number of cases has dropped to around 30,000 on Wednesday. It was 50,000 plus last week. The daily positivity also dipped to 3.63 per cent.
The Centre is now pushing for further opening up of the economy and easing travel restrictions. Last week, the guidelines for international arrival were revised, doing away with mandatory seven day home quarantine and airport screening for those coming from “at risk” nations.
“While effectively managing the public health challenge of Covid-19, it is equally important that movement of people and economic activities should not be hampered by additional restrictions imposed at state level points of entries,” Bhushan wrote.
The senior official, however, advised the states to continue with its daily monitoring of Covid-19 cases to pick up early signs of any clustering.
According to the Union Health Ministry, there are still 77 districts with more than 10 per cent weekly positivity though the situation has improved markedly from what it was till a few weeks ago.
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