COVID: Centre writes to States witnessing spike in daily new cases
Increase the proportion of RT-PCR tests and subject Rapid Antigen negative people to mandatory Retest by RT-PCR
Strict and Comprehensive Surveillance, and Stringent Containment highlighted as Critical to curbing Spread of the Disease
New Delhi, Feb 21, 2021: India has been witnessing a rise in the active caseload over the past few days. India’s total Active Caseload is pegged at 1,45,634 today. It now consists of 1.32% of India’s total Positive Cases.
More than 74% of the Active Cases of the country are in Kerala and Maharashtra. Of late it is seen that there has been a spike in the daily cases in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh also. Punjab and J&K too are witnessing a surge in daily new cases.
In the last four weeks in Kerala, the average weekly cases have fluctuated between a high of 42,000 to a low of 34,800. Similarly, in the last four weeks, the weekly positivity in Kerala has ranged from 13.9% to 8.9%. In Kerala, the district of Alappuzha is a cause of special concern where the weekly Positivity Rate has increased to 10.7% and weekly cases have increased to 2,833.
In Maharashtra, in the last four weeks, the weekly cases have shown a rising trend and have increased from 18,200 to 21,300; while the weekly positivity has also increased from 4.7% to 8%. The areas of concern are the Mumbai Suburban areas where the weekly cases have risen by 19%. In Nagpur, Amravati, Nashik, Akola and Yavatmal the weekly cases have increased by 33%, 47%, 23%, 55% and 48%, respectively.
Punjab is rapidly assuming critical dimension in respect of the spread of COVID19 infection. In the State, in the last four weeks, the weekly positivity rate has increased from 1.4% to 1.6%, while the weekly cases in the last four weeks have seen a rise from 1300 to 1682. In one district of SBS Nagar alone, the weekly positivity rate has become 4.9% from 3.5% and the weekly cases have more than doubled from 165 to 364.
5 States/UTs have weekly Positivity Rate more than the National Average. The National average is 1.79%. Maharashtra has highest weekly positivity rate with 8.10%.
The Centre has advised all these States to work on five major areas. These are:
- Improve the overall testing numbers by focusing on increasing the proportion of RT-PCR tests.
- All negative Rapid Antigen Test results to be mandatorily followed by RT-PCR test and no such negative persons are to be missed.
- Refocus on strict and comprehensive surveillance as well as stringent containment in selected districts.
- Regular monitoring of the mutant strains through testing followed by Genome Sequencing, as well as monitoring of the emerging cluster of cases.
- Focusing on clinical management in districts reporting higher deaths.
