COVID-19 situation in 11 states worries India

The Indian government on Friday said the COVID-19 pandemic situation in 11 states, including Maharashtra, Punjab and Chhattisgarh, among others, was a matter of serious concern, reported Xinhua.

Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba chaired a high-level review meeting with chief secretaries of the affected states reporting a sharp rise in daily cases and mortality to discuss the COVID-19 management and response strategy.

"... the cabinet secretary pointed out that the current COVID-19 case growth rate of 6.8 percent in March 2021 has surpassed the previous record of 5.5 percent (June 2020)," said a statement issued by federal health ministry.

"The country also reported 5.5 percent growth rate in daily COVID-19 deaths in this period. While the country was reporting about 97,000 daily new COVID-19 cases at the peak of the pandemic in September 2020, the country has now reached the critical figure 81,000 daily new cases of COVID-19," said the statement.

During the meeting, V K Paul, a member of think tank NITI Aayog, emphasized on the need for states to follow a protocol for sharing clinical and epidemiological data for a more detailed study of mutant strain of virus for genome sequencing.

Federal home secretary A K Bhalla pointed out that the 11 states that were showing a surge in daily COVID-19 cases have not shown commensurate increase in enforcement of containment activities. The chief secretaries and police chiefs of the states were asked to take appropriate strict action in this regard.

The 11 affected states have been categorized as "states of grave concern" on account of their high and rising daily cases and high daily deaths.

The states were advised to take immediate measures to ensure containment of active cases and daily deaths through adherence of the standard clinical management protocol, increase testing, strengthen isolation and contact tracing, boost public and private healthcare resources, and plan 100 percent vaccination of health care workers, frontline workers and eligible age groups.

The vaccination drive against the COVID-19 began in India on Jan. 16.

Initially, healthcare and frontline workers were vaccinated, followed by those above 50 years of age and the under-50 population groups with co-morbidities.

On Thursday the country started the third phase of the vaccination drive covering all persons above 45 years of age.