Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla on Thursday reviewed the situation and the steps taken to contain the spread of virus in Maharashtra and Kerala. Bhalla suggested adequate intervention in areas where positivity rates are being found to be on the higher side through measures such as contact tracing, vaccination drives and COVID appropriate behaviour. He also called for the state governments to explore the possibility of placing night curfew in areas of high positivity.
The state governments were advised to continue with their vaccination programmes and were given assurance of providing more doses incase required. However, efforts must be made to consume the vaccine doses received, an official statement said.
Events with the potential of having mass gatherings during the coming festive season must be avoided, it said, adding that the focus should also be placed over the next few months to suppress the levels of transmission of the virus so that the chain of transmission can be controlled more effectively.
Of the 46,164 fresh coronavirus cases recorded in the country in the last 24 hours, 31,445 were in Kerala.
The home secretary reviewed the COVID-19 situation and the steps taken to contain the spread of the virus in the southern state and gave a number of suggestions, a home ministry official said. The meeting in which Bhalla took stock of the situation in Kerala also discussed issues related to containment strategy and medical infrastructure, the official added.
Several top officials of the Centre and the state government attended the meeting, which was held through a video-conference. A central team, which visited Kerala recently, had also flagged issues relating to the containment strategy adopted by the state, another official said.
Kerala’s Alarming Surge
According to official data, Kerala is the only state in the country reporting over one lakh active COVID-19 cases, while four states have active cases in the range of 10,000 to one lakh and 31 have less than 10,000 active cases of the infection. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, who visited Kerala on August 16, announced a special package of Rs 267.35 crore for the southern state to strengthen its health infrastructure.
During his visit, Mandaviya had a meeting with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Health Minister Veena George and officials. He also announced that the Centre would provide all possible help to the state.
Besides, it was promised that an amount of Rs 1 crore would be made available to each district in Kerala to create a pool of medicines. With 46,164 people testing positive for the infection in a day, India’s COVID-19 tally has climbed to 3,25,58,530, while the number of active cases has shot up to 3,33,725, the Union health ministry said on Thursday.
The death toll due to the viral disease has gone up to 4,36,365 with 607 fresh fatalities, according to the ministry’s data.
(With PTI inputs)
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