Maintain strict vigil on Covid situation with focused district-level measures: Centre to states

The Covid-19 positivity rate has been more than 10 per cent in eight districts in Mizoram, Kerala and Sikkim in the last two weeks

The Union Health Ministry on Saturday asked the states to impose containment measures like night curfew and prohibition of a congregation in areas where the 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, the states have been advised to keep a close watch on 19 additional districts where the positivity rate varies between 5-10% besides 70 Covid clusters as highly infectious omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has spread to nearly 60 countries with the experts fearing a rise in Covid-19 cases in India in January -February.

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

Also read: South African doctors find Omicron to be causing milder Covid than Delta

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

Even though the government didn’t release a list of the 70 clusters, many of them would be in 30 odd districts in six states where the number of new Covid-19 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 restriction measures would include night curfews, curbing on the 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 3000 cases of the new variant of concern and another 78,000 probable cases are under investigation.

Also read: Centre admits issuing wrong Covid-19 vaccine certificates

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, testing of all SARI and ILI cases through rapid antigen tests and retesting by RTPCR of symptomatic RAT negative tests. Strict adherence to Covid-19 appropriate behaviour at all places and at all times must also be rigorously enforced and aggressively monitored.

Independent experts said they expected the cases in India to rise by early next year as this had been the experience of other countries with high levels of vaccination, such as Israel and the UK. The best risk reduction strategies, according to them, still are mask-wearing, care for ventilation, physical distancing and stepping up vaccination.

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