The Centre has half-a-dozen States and UTs reporting high Covid-19 caseload and fatality rate to strengthen containment measures and scale up testing to bring down positivity rate below five per cent. This even as it has dispatched two-member special teams to Punjab and Chandigarh to provide extended guidance in managing the Covid-19 pandemic.
As many as 35 districts in five states and one UT reporting high Covid-19 caseload and fatality rate. The list comprises all 11 districts in Delhi, Kolkata, Howrah, North 24 Parganas and 24 South Parganas in West Bengal; Pune, Nagpur, Thane, Mumbai, Mumbai Suburban, Kolhapur, Sangli, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Raigad, Jalgaon, Solapur, Satara, Palghar, Aurangabad, Dhule and Nanded in Maharashtra; Surat in Gujarat; Pondicherry in Puducherry and East Singhbhum in Jharkhand.
In a review meeting held on Saturday, they were asked to ensure strict perimeter control, strengthen the active case search focusing on comorbids and elderly population, early identification by ramping up testing and optional utilization of RT-PCR testing capacity to break the chain of transmission of the disease, the Health ministry said on Sunday.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan held the review meeting through video conference with health secretaries of five States and one UT on the containment and management of Covid-19 in 35 districts under their jurisdiction.
The district collectors and other functionaries were advised to prepare and update district specific plans to continue their efforts to manage the pandemic.
The States were also advised to effectively monitor home isolation cases and early hospitalisation in case of disease progression, seamless hospitalisation and early admission for patients requiring medical support, especially in cases of comorbid and elderly population, besides following effective infection control measures in hospitals to safeguard healthcare workers from contracting the infection.
In Punjab and Chandigarh, the two-member teams which will comprise a community medicine expert from PGIMER, Chandigarh and an epidemiologist from NCDC will be stationed for ten days to provide extended guidance in managing Covid.
In Punjab, as on Saturday, out of the total of 61,527 Covid-19 cases, 15,870 are active cases. 1808 deaths have been registered. Chandigarh has reported 2140 active cases, whereas its cumulative cases stand at 5502.
Testing per million and cumulative positivity stands at 38054 and 11.99 per cent, respectively.
India’s Covid-19 tally of cases mounted to 41,13,811 with a record 90,632 people being infected in a day, while the death toll climbed to 70,626 with the novel coronavirus virus claiming 1,065 lives in a span of 24 hours in the country, as per the Government data.