NEW DELHI: The Centre on Saturday advised states and UTs reporting a surge in Covid-19 cases to not lower their guard, enforce Covid appropriate behaviour and deal firmly with violations.
Cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba chaired a high level review meeting with chief secretaries of states/UTs of Maharashtra,
Punjab, Gujarat,
Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Telangana and Jammu & Kashmir.
"Six states – Maharashtra,
Kerala, Punjab,
Karnataka,
Tamil Nadu and Gujarat- have shown a surge in new cases in the last 24 hours," the Union health ministry said in a statement.
"Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at 8,333. It is followed by Kerala with 3,671 while Punjab reported 622 new cases in the last 24 hours," health ministry added.
In the last two weeks, Maharashtra has shown the highest rise in active cases from 34,449 on February 14 to 68,810 currently.
The Centre also emphasised on the need for effective testing, comprehensive tracking, prompt isolation of positive cases and quick quarantine of close contacts.
The states were advised to take the following steps during the review meeting:-Improve the overall testing in districts reporting reduction in testing.
-Increase RT- PCR tests in states & districts having high antigen testing.
-Refocus on surveillance and stringent containment in selected districts -reporting reduced tests/high positivity & increased cases.
-Monitor mutant strain and clustering of cases for early hotspot identification & control.
-Focus on clinical management in districts reporting higher deaths.
-Undertake priority vaccination in districts reporting higher cases.
-Promote Covid-appropriate behaviour ensure effective citizen communication to not let complacency set in, especially in light of vaccination drive entering the next phase; and enforcing stringent social distancing measures.