Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla on Thursday evening chaired a meeting through video conferencing to review the steps taken by…
Ministry of Power, Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla.
Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla on Thursday evening chaired a meeting through video conferencing to review the steps taken by the State Governments of Kerala and Maharashtra for checking the spread of Covid-19.
Concerned about the management of the Covid-19 situation in the two States, the Home Secretary reviewed the efforts being made by the state governments to contain the spread of infections and observed that more efforts would be required to arrest the increase in infections.
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This would mean adequate intervention in geographical areas having a higher infection, through measures such as contact tracing, vaccination drives and Covid appropriate behaviour, he told them. He suggested that the state governments should explore the possibility of placing night curfew in areas of high positivity.
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The state governments were advised that they should continue with their vaccination programmes and in case they required more vaccines, the same would be provided to the extent possible.
However, efforts must be made to consume the vaccine doses received, he told them. It was also emphasized that along with vaccinations, Covid-19 appropriate behaviour must also continue to be encouraged and events with the potential of having mass gatherings during the coming festive season must be avoided.
It was also advised that testing must be ramped up in areas in the two states where positivity rates are found to be on the higher side. The focus should also be placed over the next few months to suppress the levels of transmission of the virus so that the chain of transmission can be controlled more effectively.
The meeting was attended by Dr V K Paul, Member (Health), Niti Aayog; Health and Family Welfare Secretary, the Director, National Centre for Communicable Diseases (NCDC) and Chief Secretaries and Directors General of Police of Kerala and Maharashtra
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