Chief Secretary K. Shanmugam on Friday wrote to District Collectors, urging them not to let their guards down in the battle against COVID-19, and called for extra vigil, following relaxations in economic and allied activities since September 1.

“All of you should be aware that the worst time in pandemic management is yet to come. With the opening up of more activities like industries, commercial establishments, public transport, temples, etc., the disease is expected to spike in October, if no proper discipline is enforced or observed by the people in using face masks, maintaining physical distancing in public places or in terms of personal hygiene,” he said.

Warning against complacency at any level, he said that the next two or three months were critical due to the non-availability of a vaccine. He called for the strict enforcement of discipline through local bodies and the police, by levying fines and closing down establishments violating norms, if necessary. Increased awareness on safety protocols must be created, he added.

COVID-19 vigilance committees can be activated in villages and wards to keep vigil on travellers and visitors. They can ensure that the visitors adhere to quarantine norms.

Shift in strategy

The strategy, the letter said, “now clearly shifts from lockdown restriction to containment zone management, with effective perimeter control, so that normal life of people resumes...The shift is from government-driven testing, isolation, treating strategy to public-driven testing, quarantine, isolation and treatment strategy.”

Containment zones and sample collection centres can be increased if needed, he said. The parameters to be taken care of with appropriate strategies are: reducing positivity rate, reducing the absolute number of positive cases, controlling the disease spread and reducing the fatality rate.

He suggested comprehensive fever camps, contact tracing, focused testing in affected areas and public awareness, among other measures.

Collectors were also instructed to encourage more private hospitals to augment their testing and treatment facilities and to provide more care centres for persons who could afford to pay, so that the pressure on government facilities was brought down. But pnly rates fixed by the government should be collected.

Monitoring health infrastructure and biomedical waste, keeping the morale of frontline workers high, with appropriate breaks in their work, continuous death audits, strict enforcement of discipline through local bodies and the police and proper precautions in conducting meetings were some of the other instructions.

“Normal activities of the administration, including development works and implementation of welfare schemes, should be resumed rapidly, but with care and caution,” the letter added.