Health ministry issued directions of control for six states reporting an upsurge in covid cases in the last few weeks.

Recent few weeks had witnessed an upsurge in covid cases in India. In view of this, the government has ordered six states to investigate the situation at micro level and take necessary steps like surveillance, testing and monitoring new and developing covid cases.

A total of 2,082 cases were registered in this week until 8 March. In addition to this 3,264 cases are recorded in the last week that ended 15 March. The states who are struggling with the rise in the active covid cases are Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary stated “There are few states which are reporting higher number of cases indicating possible localized spread of infection and there’s a need to follow a risk assessment-based approach to prevent and contain the infection without losing the gains made so far in the fight against the pandemic,”

According to the health ministry, active cases Karnataka and Telangana increased from 493 to 604 cases and 132 to 267 cases concluding in a positivity rate of 0.61% and 0.31% within a week respectively. An increase in weekly cases from 355 to 668 with positivity rate of 1.92% and from 170 to 258 with a positivity rate of 1.99% was observed in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu respectively. . Gujarat and Kerela suffered an increase in weekly cases from 105 to 279 and from 434 to 579 thus having a positivity rate of 1.11% and 2.64% respectively. 

Bhushan mentioned in a letter seen by Mint. “It is advised that State should examine the situation of COVID-19 at micro level (district &sub-districts) and maintain focus on implementation of necessary measures for prompt and effective management of Covid-19 duly ensuring effective compliance with various advisories issued by this Ministry”

He further added “The five-fold strategy, i.e., Test-Track Treat-Vaccination should be followed with continued focus on adequate &proactive testing as per guidelines, monitoring new and emerging clusters of new Covid-19 cases along with monitoring the trend of Influenza-like illness (ILI) & SARI cases in al health facilities or through dedicated fever clinics on a regular basis for detecting early warning signals of the spread of infection,"