Centre urges states to amend additional Covid restrictions as cases decline
PremiumSeveral state governments have already relaxed the Covid curbs on travel and gatherings
The central government on Wednesday asked states to review and alter the additional Covid-19 restrictions that were imposed after a sudden surge in infections.
“The Covid-19 pandemic in India is showing a sustained declining trend since 21 January. The average daily cases during last week were 50,476 and 27,409 new cases have been reported in the last 24 hours," wrote Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan in a letter to states.
“With the changing epidemiology of Covid -19 pandemic globally and in India, existing guidelines aimed at minimizing the transmission and circulation of the virus have been reviewed and updated," he added.
Bhushan said that the Union health ministry has revised its guidelines for international arrivals and asked states to amend the additional restrictions they had imposed too.
“In view of the high Covid case trajectory, certain states had imposed additional restrictions at their borders and at airports. However, while effectively managing the public health challenge of Covid-19, it is equally important that movement of people and activities should not be hampered by additional restrictions," wrote the official.
“Presently, as the case trajectory across the nation are showing a sustained downward trend, it will be useful if states/UTs review and amend/do away with the additional restrictions so imposed after considering the trend of new cases, active cases and positivity," added Bhushan.
He stated that states should continue to monitor the trajectory of cases and spread of infection on a daily basis and follow the broad five-fold strategy of – Test-Track-Treat-Vaccination-Adherence to Covid appropriate behaviour.
The central government had last month extended the existing Covid curbs till 28 February as several states continued to show a positivity rate of over 10%.
It had also directed that “imposition and lifting of local curbs or restrictions dynamic" should be based on the case positivity and hospitalisation status "at the local level".
Covid situation in country
India logged 30,615 new coronavirus infections, taking the country's tally of Covid-19 cases to 4,27,23,558, while the active cases dipped to 3,70,240, according to the health ministry data updated on Wednesday morning.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.45% while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 3.32%.
The death toll climbed to 5,09,872 with 514 fresh fatalities, pushing the case fatality rate to 1.19%.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,18,43,446.
The country has seen less than one lakh new infections for 10 days straight.
Active cases comprise 0.87% of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate has further improved to 97.94%. A reduction of 52,887 cases was recorded in the active Covid-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
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