Issuing a letter to Maharashtra’s chief secretary Sitaram Kunte, based on the assessment of the Central govt team, the Union health ministry has urged the state to bring down its positivity rate and step up contact-tracing.
A taxi driver drives past a wall mural painted to thank frontline workers fighting against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Mumbai on June 25, 2020. (Photo by Punit PARANJPE / AFP)
The Centre warned Maharashtra on Tuesday that the state is witnessing a beginning of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and asked the state government to focus on containment strategies and scale up the pace of vaccination campaign, especially in districts witnessing a sharp increase in infections.
Issuing a letter to Maharashtra’s chief secretary Sitaram Kunte, based on the assessment of the Central govt team, the Union health ministry has urged the state to bring down its positivity rate and step up contact-tracing.
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The letter enclosed the analysis of the pandemic situation in Maharashtra by a Central team which was deputed there to assess the ground situation.
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The team noted the lack of Covid-19 appropriate behaviour and tracking and testing of cases as the prime reason behind the surge in infections, apart from the apathy of the district administration to implement already prescribed measures for transmission control.
Meanwhile, India recorded 24,492 new Covid-19 cases, registering more than 20,000 cases for the sixth day in a row, taking the infection tally past 1.14 crore, the Union health ministry said on Tuesday. The total cases in the country rose to 1,14,09,831, while the death toll increased to 1,58,856, with 131 fresh fatalities.
The active caseload has increased to 2,23,432. The recovery rate has further dropped to 96.65 per cent, it said.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 22,82,80,763 samples have been tested till March 15, with 8,73,350 samples tested on Monday.
Out of the 131 new fatalities, 48 deaths were reported from Maharashtra, 27 from Punjab and 11 from Kerala.
Delhi sees a surge of 425 cases: The national capital today recorded 425 coronavirus infections detected out of 70,049 tests, according to the Delhi government’s latest health bulletin. The positivity rate stood at 0.61 per cent.
Delhi’s Covid-19 toll climbed to 10,945 with one more fatality, the bulletin stated.
~With inputs from PTI~
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