With people lowering their guard and no strict action on the same, the government has directed high-level teams to arrive in 10 states and Union Territories of the country that have witnessed an increase in covid-19 cases. The Centre warned the concerned regions that the situation will become worse if they continue to untighten the rules and measures in place to check the infection level, more than ever now as the new strains of the virus have started appearing.
Notices mentioning the sudden surge in cases and vital steps to bring them down have been sent by the Health Secretary to 7 states and Union Territories.
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The 10 states where a 3-member multi-disciplinary team has been sent to each include Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Jammu & Kashmir. The Joint Secretary-level officers in the Health Ministry are heading every such team.
Their work will be to operate with the state administration closely and find the factors that created the surge in infections. These teams also hold the responsibility to communicate with the health authorities of the states and UTs to look into the methods for ceasing the transmission, according to the health ministry’s statement.
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All the states have also been instructed to organize critical review meetings concerned with the circumstances at hand today with officials of the respective districts regularly.
Moreover, the Central government has written to 7 out of the 10 states- Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab as these are not only witnessing an increase in the daily number of cases but also a decrease in the number of RT-PCR tests conducted.
As such, it has been told to scale the RT-PCR testing and conduct both (RT-PCR and rapid antigen) tests in the districts affected the most through a focused regime.
The Centre has asked these states to increase RT-PCR testing and carry out both kinds of tests in a focused manner in districts worst affected.
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In addition, people turning out negative in rapid antigen tests but showing symptoms will have to undergo the RT-PCR test to confirm the status, the government said along with a call for strict contact-tracing of every patient who tests positive.
Out of all the active cases in India today, Maharashtra and Kerala account for 75% of it alone due to the surge in cases recently.
As of Wednesday, Maharashtra’s record of new cases was 6218 while Kerala registered the second-highest number of new cases today with 4,034 infections. Tamil Nadu followed with 449 cases as Punjab witnessed 414 and Karnataka 383 new cases.
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In the last 24 hours, Maharashtra reported 51 fatalities, Kerala-14 and Punjab-10. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka followed with 6 and 4 respectively, according to the health ministry of the country.
