Amid a sudden spike in the COVID-19 and Omicron cases across Maharashtra, the Union Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan wrote a letter to the state and directed to increase surveillance in five districts that have seen an exponential growth in the number of infections in the past two weeks.
The five districts that are seeing a surge include Mumbai (city and suburban), Thane, Pune and Nagpur.
In the letter addressed to state’s additional health secretary, Dr Pradeep Vyas, the Centre has urged to intensify testing, contact tracing, setting up of containment zones and rapid hospital preparedness to curb transmission and chances of increased mortality due to late detection.
It underlined that testing should be enhanced in these districts with a steady balance between RT-PCR and rapid antigen tests.
The letter also mentioned that contacts must be traced proactively. Bhushan also asked the state to increase the pace of vaccination.
Mumbai and Nagpur have registered 233% and 204% jump in active cases in the past week. On December 30, 3,671 new positive patients being reported, according to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) data. However, in a sense of respite, zero fatalities were reported.
Moreover, Mumbai Police has imposed CrPC section 144 in the island city from December 30 to January 7.
In addition, the Maharashtra government has imposed curbs on New Year Celebrations, weddings and other social, political and religious events.
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