New Delhi, June 10 (Agency) With a significant uptick in the Covid-19 cases, the Union Health Ministry warned four states on Thursday and asked them to maintain strict vigilance as well as follow the centre’s guidelines. In a letter written to Maharashtra, Kerala, Delhi and Karnataka, the Union Ministry asked the states to take pre-emptive measures to limit the spread of infection. The four states contributed over 81 per cent to the national tally reported in the last 24 hours. India logged 7,240 new Covid-19 cases today, in which, over 81 per cent of them were reported from Maharashtra, Kerala, Delhi and Karnataka alone, according to the Union Health Ministry’s data. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan highlighted in the letter about an increase in the weekly positivity rate from 0.63 per cent (week ending June 1, 2022) to 1.12 per cent (week ending June 8, 2022). “Sustained and significant decline in the number of COVID-19 cases across the country during the past four months.
However, in the past two weeks, an upsurge in cases has been noticed. In the week ending 8th June, 2022, 4,207 average daily new cases were reported as compared to 2,663 average daily cases in the week ending 1st June, 2022,” he said in the letter. “In previous letters, specific strategic areas of intervention for the States/UTs like testing and surveillance, clinical management, vaccination, COVID appropriate behaviour and community engagement with an increased focus on evidence-based decision-making was underlined,” he added in the letter. The Union Ministry also asked the four states to follow the five-fold strategy of test-track-treat-vaccination and adherence to Covid-19 appropriate behaviour. “Given the significance of adequate testing in early identification of cases and providing an accurate picture of the level of infection spread, it is required that States/UTs must ensure a high level of testing in all such areas that are reporting new cases/cluster of cases. State/UTs must also monitor average daily testing per million as well as share of RT-PCR in total tests conducted,” Bhushan said further.