Centre writes to Maharashtra over surging Covid-19 cases

MUMBAI: Amid concern of rising Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra, the Central Government team has suggested the state to ramp up its efforts on containment strategies and scale up the pace of vaccination drive.

In a letter written to the Maharashtra Chief Secretary Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that the state is in the beginning of a second wave of COVID-19 pandemic.

Bhusan said this after the central team's visit to the state last week. The letter further stated that very limited efforts were undertaken to track, test, isolate cases and quarantine contacts. "There is no adherence to COVID appropriate behaviour among people both in rural and urban areas," it added.

While urging the state to focus on containment strategies, it said "measures such as night curfews and lockdowns have very limited impact on containing transmission."

The letter further said that the current fatality is higher than among admitted cases in hospitals. It further called for sending samples for Whole Genome Sequencing.

The letter further asserted that due to limited contact tracing, the asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic people were not being tracked and tested. Hence, it suggested that testing be considerably enhanced according to protocol laid down by the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Meanwhile, with over 15,000 fresh cases, the Maharashtra government on Monday extended restrictions imposed in containment zones till March 31 and issued fresh guidelines for the state. All offices in the state, except health and other essential services, will have to function at 50 per cent capacity. As far as possible, employees should be asked to work from home, the notification said.

While all restaurants, hotels, malls and cinema halls have also been advised to operate at half capacity, they will further have to ensure adequate manpower to enforce mask-wearing and social distancing. Temperature checks and sanitising of hands have also been made mandatory at these places.

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