Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Amid a steady rise in COVID-19 cases, the Centre on Friday, has asked eight states to watch out for the situation and take a stock of vaccines and other preparations to avoid the infection from spreading.
The Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, in a letter to the state governments of these states, has reiterated that the pandemic is far from over. “We must remain cautious against laxity at any level, which may nullify the gains made in pandemic management so far,” he added.
The country recorded over 11,o00 new cases which took the active caseload to 66,170. This is the third week that India witnessed over 10,000 infections a day. Apart from the cases it is the fatalities that are a cause for concern. There were 28 deaths reported from across the country on Friday. Although, experts have opined that deaths that have occurred in the last 24 hours have been in people with comorbidities.
Letter sent to
The letter has been sent to those states that have reported highest number of infections in the last few weeks. There has been a steady increase in COVID-19 incidences in states including Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Haryana and Delhi. According to government data, these states have one or more districts to register over 10 per cent positivity rate.
While Kerala tops the chart with 14 districts, Haryana is a close second with 12 districts registering more infections, Tamil Nadu and Delhi have 11 districts each with maximum number of cases, Maharashtra (8), Rajasthan (6), and Uttar Pradesh with 1 district reporting high number of incidences.
What does the letter entail?
In the letter, the Centre has stressed upon the importance of having a strong surveillance and testing system for COVID-19 cases in all districts. They have written to the health departments in these areas to monitor trends of influenza-like illness (ILI) and also keep a close watch at severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) cases.
Justifying his letter to the eight states, Bhushan stated that hospitalisation rate and deaths due to the disease may have remained negligible but there was a possibility of a “localised spread of infection”, especially in those states where the infections have been high in more than one districts.
Highlighting the need for the health departments to be cautious about the situation, Bhushan has stressed on why a closer look at these states and districts is a need of the hour. He emphasised on the “need to institute requisite public health measures to control and contain such surges in the initial stages.”
It is to be noted that the Centre has been working on a war footing to contain the spread of the infection. There have been nation-wide mock drills to ascertain how prepared we are to deal with an emergency situation.
