Take strong measures, bring down Covid-19 positivity rate: Health Ministry to 15 states

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has written to at least 15 states, asking them to take strong measures to bring down Covid-19 test positivity rate in 84 districts which have recorded more than 10% positivity rate in the past week.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan wrote separate letters to Chief Secretaries of these states, asking them to ensure strict implementation of interventions to control transmission of Covid-19 and bring down the positivity rate in these districts.

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Elements of the District Action Plan should be "comprehensively and strictly implemented" in these districts that have reported over 10% positivity rate between June 21 and 27, Bhushan wrote.

The District Action Plan includes mapping of cases, reviewing ward and block-wise indicators, focusing on effective surveillance and quick hospitalisation or isolation of positive cases, round the clock Emergency Operations Centre and Incident Command Control and strict compliance of SOPs in containment zones.

The letters were written to Rajasthan, Kerala, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Puducherry, Manipur, Assam, Sikkim, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. All eight states from the Northeast have at least one district which has more than 10% positivity rate.

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Among the states, Arunachal has the highest number of districts (17) with more than 10% positivity rate, followed by Rajasthan (11), Meghalaya (9), Kerala and Andhra Pradesh (eight each).

Manipur has six such districts while Nagaland has five, Assam, Odisha and Tripura (four each), Sikkim (3), Mizoram (2) and West Bengal, Puducherry and Himachal Pradesh have one each district.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued an order asking states to adopt a "carefully calibrated" approach as they ease restrictions following a decline in Covid-19 cases.

According to the Health Ministry, 111 districts across the country were reporting more than 100 cases daily as on June 27.