COVID-19: Health Ministry writes to States & UTs amid surge, advises adherence to norms

Amid the recent surge reported in COVID-19 cases across the country, the Health Ministry of India on Thursday urged States and Union Territories to not lower their guards and strictly maintain the COVID appropriate behaviour. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Thursday wrote a letter to States/UTs and directed them to ramp up RT-PCR testing, surveillance, clinical management, vaccination, COVID-19 protocols and take timely pre-emptive actions. Bhushan also advised the government to follow a 'five-fold Strategy'.

Health Ministry advises States/UTs to follow COVID appropriate behaviour

"There has been a sustained and significant decline in the number of COVID-19 cases across the country during the past four months. However, in the past two weeks, an upsurge has been noticed. The States/UTS are advised to continue implementation and monitoring of necessary measures for prompt and effective management of COVID-19 and to ensure compliance with the advisories issued by the Health Ministry. The States/UTs must not lower their guards and continue working towards building on the progress made thus far to bring the pandemic situation under control," the letter stated.

Health Secretary further assured that the health ministry will continue to provide requisite support to the states/UTs in this ongoing collective effort.

Health Ministry directs states to follow 'five-fold Strategy'

The Health Ministry has now taken special cognisance of the four most-affected states including Maharashtra, Kerala, Delhi, and Karnataka, and has further asked them to follow the five-fold strategy of Test-Track-Treat-Vaccination and adherence to COVID Appropriate Behavior (CAB), reported ANI citing official sources on Thursday.  According to ANI, the Health Ministry has also asked the states to monitor the cluster of new cases and further amp-up testing among people. 

COVID cases in India 

COVID cases in India have recently witnessed a sudden spike due to a rise in infections in a few states. India on Thursday recorded another surge in daily COVID cases as it reported 7,240 fresh infections in the 24 prior. Earlier, it had witnessed a rise of nearly 39% in daily infections. 

With the recent numbers, India's total tally of COVID-19 cases jumped to 4,31,97,522, while the death toll also climbed to 5,24,723 with eight fresh deaths. The active cases have also increased to 32,498, comprising 0.08% of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.71%, the ministry informed. Notably, the single-day rise in new Covid infections in India was recorded at over 7,000 after a span of 99 days, while the daily positivity rate crossed 2% after 111 days. 

Maharashtra being the most-affected state alone reported 2,701 new cases on Wednesday evening which is the highest in four months. Out of this, Mumbai alone Wednesday recorded 1,765 new COVID-19 cases, its highest single-day count since January 26. 

(Image: Pixabay/ANI)