Mumbai: The Centre on Tuesday has conveyed to the Maharashtra Government that three districts – Ahmednagar, Solapur and Beed – continue to report an increasing trend in daily new cases during the last four weeks while the state contributes 19.43% of the active cases. The Centre has asked the state government to step up corona management measures.

However, there is one silver lining that Maharashtra has 1 reproductive number and that is declining.

The State Public Health Department officer told Free Press Journal, ‘’The Union health ministry has asked the state government to undertake intensive containment and active surveillance in clusters reporting higher cases and define containment zones, based on mapping of cases and contacts traced.’’

The officer said the Union health ministry has also asked to ramp up testing, conduct state level sero-surveys for district-wise disthe Union health ministry has also asked to ramp up testing, conduct state level sero-surveys for district-wise disease prevalence data, in collaboration with ICMRease prevalence data in collaboration with ICMR. ‘’The ministry has also advised the state government to ramp up vaccination in the 60+ and 45-60 age categories as evidence shows nearly 80% of the mortality is from these vulnerable age-groups. Regarding enforcement measures, it has asked the government to avoid all non-essential travel and to discourage all large gatherings of crowds,’’ he added.

Union Health Ministry’s advisory came a day after the state government revised its BreaktheChain order while continuing the stringent restrictions in Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara, Pune, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Solapur, Ahmednagar, Beed, Raigad and Palghar in view of high cases and positivity rate.

On the other hand, the government has delegated powers to the District Disaster Management Authorities in Sindhudurg, Satara and Ahmednagar districts in view of higher number of positive cases & higher emergence of fresh cases.