Covid-19 cases at three-month high; up vigil, says health ministry

Centre writes to Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana & TN

In the wake of rising Covid-19 cases, the Union health secretary has written to five states — Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana and Tamil Nadu — asking them to step up the vigil and take pre-emptive actions if necessary to contain any rapid spread of infections.

As of June 3, the health ministry bulletin said India added 4041 fresh cases in the last 24 hours. India’s active case-load stands at 21,177.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said in the past one week, a slight upsurge of cases has been observed — from 15,708 cases in the week ending May 27 to 21,055 in the week ending June 3. Also, there is a rise in weekly positivity rate from 0.52 per cent in the May 27 week to 0.73 per cent in the week ending June 3. He said in his letter that some states were reporting a higher contribution to India’s cases, indicating a localised spread of infection.

For example, Maharashtra has reported an increase in cases from 2,471 (May 27 week) to 4,883 cases (June 3), accounting for 23.19 per cent of the country’s cases. The state has also seen the positivity rate in the last week from 1.5 per cent to 3.1 per cent.

Kerala, on the other hand, has reported 6,566 cases in the June 3 week, up from 4,139 cases in the previous week. The positivity rate in the state has touched 7.8 per cent. About 11 districts in the state have reported a surge in cases. Similarly, Mumbai has six districts that need focused intervention, said the letter.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had called a meeting of the state Covid-19 task force on Thursday to discuss the matter and said the state government would monitor the situation for 15 days. He also asked to keep the field hospitals ready, and urged people to follow discipline if they did not want restrictions to be back.

The Union health ministry has asked these five states to ensure Covid-appropriate behaviour, monitor clusters of cases and influenza-like illnesses, as well as genomic sequencing of samples from international passengers and clusters of cases.