PNS | Hyderabad
Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) Secretary Rajesh Bhushan wrote to the Telangana Department of Health and Family Welfare (DPHFW) on Thursday warning about the growing number of Covid-19 cases in the state in the last two weeks.
The Centre asked the state DPHFW Chief Secretary, Syed Ali Murtaza Rizvi, to focus on implementing measures for the prompt and effective management of Covid-19 by duly ensuring compliance with advisories.
“While most parts of India registered a significant decline during the last few months, there are some States which are reporting higher numbers of corona cases indicating a possible localised spread of infection and there is a need to follow a risk assessment-based approach to contain the infection, without losing the gains made so far in the fight against the pandemic,” the letter from Centre said.
Highlighting Telangana data, the letter added, “An increase in weekly cases from 132 in the week ending March 8, 2023, to 267 by March 15, has been noticed.The State reported a positivity rate of 0.31 per cent. A further analysis into the districts has highlighted that most of the cases are being reported from Hyderabad District (from 29 cases in the week ending March 8, 2023, to 53 cases on March 15, 2023).”
The Centre advised the state to examine the Covid-19 situation at the micro level (district and sub-districts) and maintain focus on the implementation of necessary measures.
The Centre suggested a five-fold strategy to tackle the matter. The strategy of Test-Track-Treat-Vaccination should be followed with a continued focus on adequate testing, monitoring new and emerging clusters of new Covid-19 cases, monitoring of Influenza-like illness (ILI) and SARI cases in all medical facilities or through dedicated fever clinics, genomic sequencing for prescribed samples of international passengers, collection of samples from sentinel sites (identified medical facilities), and clusters of cases.
Additionally, it called for proactive promotion to increase the administration of precautionary vaccine doses for all those eligible. They said that it is essential that the State must maintain a strict watch and take pre-emptive action if required in areas of concern to control infection.
The letter also revealed that in India, 2,082 cases were reported in the week ending March 8, 2023, which rose to 3,264 cases by March 15, 2023.
