Centre asks Kerala to ramp up genomic surveillance & contact tracing amid surge in COVID

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan penned a letter to Kerala's Chief Secretary on Friday pointing out the high influx of COVID cases that the southern state. Kerala remained one of the top contributors in terms of daily cases in India as it reported over 30,000 cases on Friday. 

What did the Health Secretary suggest in his letter?

In a letter to Kerala's chief secretary on Friday, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said the state has witnessed a sustained and significant transmission of COVID since July. Considering the recent increase in the number of cases the Union Health Secretary issued certain measures. He stressed that the COVID containment zones in the state needed to be defined with a special focus on the high transmission clusters.

Focusing on that aspect,  Bhushan said, "Such zones need to be re-defined if the proportion of cases being reported outside of containment zones is showing an increase. The buffer zone around the containment zone needs to be identified clearly and passive surveillance needs to be enhanced to detect any spillover of cases from the containment zone." 

Bhushan iterated the need for contact tracing to be scaled up to ensure that at least 20-25 contacts per positive case are identified and all contacts thus identified were quarantined. He added, "The district administration needs to ensure strict compliance to MoHFW’s home isolation guidelines and ensure that there is intensive follow up of all such cases under home isolation. Enforcement of Covid-appropriate behaviour needs to be further intensified." Bhushan also stressed in avoidance of mass gatherings and said that the district administration should enforce it.

He also opined that it would be a proactive decision made at the government's end if genomic surveillance in areas of high and sustained transmission was ensured. The Union health secretary said while expanding the coverage of COVID vaccination is required, it is reiterated that a state-specific strategy to complete the second-dose vaccination of the beneficiaries should be adopted.

Government efforts failed: high positivity rate persists

As Kerala gets done with Onam festivities, a sharp escalation of positivity in the number of cases, deaths and test positivity rate was witnessed across the state. Thrissur, Kozhikode and Ernakulam have reported more than 4000 cases per million in the week ending August 25. Despite efforts by the state government on increasing testing, the test confirmation percentage still remains very high (more than 15 per cent) signalling high and widespread transmission. 14 districts in Kerala had been identified as districts of concern due to high test positivity rates and high cases per million reported in the past four weeks.

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