Must not lower guard: Centre tells states, UTs amid Covid-19 surge

In view of rising Covid cases across the country in the last two weeks, the Centre on Thursday advised all States and UTs not to lower the guard and to continue working towards building on progress made so far.

"The States/UTs must not lower their guard and continue working towards building on progress made thus far to bring pandemic situation under control," reads the letter sent to all states.

"In past two weeks, an upsurge in cases have been noticed. In the week ending 8th June, 2022, 4,207 average daily new cases were reported as compared to 2,663 average daily cases in the week ending 1st June, 2022. There has also been an increase in the weekly positivity rate from 0.63 per cent (week ending 1st June, 2022) to 1.12 per cent (week ending 8th June, 2022)", said Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan in the letter.

He pointed out further that in the last 24 hours, 7,240 new Covid-19 cases have been reported in the country, out of which, 81 per cent cases have been reported from 4 states of Maharashtra, Kerala, Delhi and Karnataka.

"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 various advisories issued by this Ministry", the letter reads.

The states have been advised to follow five-fold strategy of Test-Track-Treat Vaccine and Covid Appropriate Behaviour and enforcement be monitored regularly.

The Centre has also asked for genome Sequencing of prescribed samples of international passengers as well as collection of samples from Sentinel Sites and local cluster of new Covid-19 cases is equally important.

"Such samples must be sent promptly by the State/UT to the designated lab of INSACOG network for Genome Sequencing", said Bhushan in the letter.

--IANS

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