Digital Desk: At a time when many states and union territories are planning to lift covid-19 restrictions on public movement due to a slight drop in covid-19 cases in the past week, the Centre has advised states to proceed with caution when lifting restrictions because the number of infections remains high.
On Thursday, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued an order under the Disaster Management Act, extending its earlier order for covid confinement from December 27 to February 28.
“The current covid wave, led by the new covid variant Omicron, has resulted in a continuous increase in the number of covid cases in the country, with over 22 lakhs active cases. Even while the majority of current cases are recovering quickly and a small fraction of patients are in hospitals, the fact that 407 districts in 34 states and territories are reporting a positive rate of more than 10% is cause for alarm. As a result, given the current covid viral tendencies, there is a need to take prudence and attention.” Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla wrote in a letter to all state chief secretaries.
The MHA has advised states to take all necessary safeguards and “not let down their guard.” Its decision was based on a thorough assessment of the circumstances, and local and district governments should continue to adopt fast and adequate containment measures.
The letter stated, “The enforcement and relaxing of local restrictions should be on positive cases and hospitalization status at the local level.”
The letter asked states to keep focusing on the five-step plan of Test-Track-Treat-Vaccination and covid-19 appropriate behaviour.
“In all public areas/gatherings, the state enforcement machinery should strictly enforce the COVID Appropriate Behaviour requirements, such as wearing face masks and keeping safe social distance. Furthermore, states and local governments should continue to convene frequent media briefings to share accurate information and discourage any misrepresentation about new varieties of concern, according to the letter.” the letter added.
While schools in Mumbai have already opened, Delhi lifted the weekend curfew and schools are open soon, as per reports.
Notably, 2.86 lakh people have tested positive for covid-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing India’s total number of cases to over 4.4 crores.
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