Odisha Among 5 States, UT To Get Warning From Centre Over Rising COVID Cases, Positivity Rate, Deaths

New Delhi: The Centre has written to five states including Odisha and a Union Territory to take necessary steps to curb the rising cases of COVID-19, weekly positivity rates and deaths in some of their districts.

The others states are Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram and Jammu & Kashmir. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said on Saturday said they must further the strategy of testing, tracking, treating vaccinating and enforcing COVID appropriate behaviour strategy to control the spread of  COVID-19 and bring down related deaths.

“In this context, required necessary steps to control the spread of infection and reduce fatality need to be taken as per the ongoing strategy of Test-Track-Treat-Vaccinate-Covid Appropriate Behaviour to keep the situation under control,” Bhushan underlined in this later letter.

Bhushan referred to the letter sent to all states and Union territories on November 27 in the context of the new Omicron variant. He said all states have been advised to undertake enhanced surveillance of international travellers, monitor emerging hotspots and promptly trace the contacts of positive people.

He also said they have been advised to send all positive samples for genome sequencing, early identification of cases and review of health infrastructure preparedness and most importantly to focus on IEC and community sensitisation.

About Odisha, he said the state has reported 7,445 new COVID-19 cases in the month ending December 3, with a contribution of 2.5 per cent to India’s new cases from over the past month.

“It is important to note that Khordha district in the state is reporting a high quantum of weekly new cases with 900 new cases reported in the week ending December 3. Further, six out of 30 districts —Dhenkanal, Kandhamal, Nabarangpur, Kendujhar, Anugul and Balangir– reported an increase in the weekly caseload as compared to the week ending November 26,” he said in the letter.

The state has seen a decline of 3.1 per cent in weekly tests conducted, from 401,164 tests in the week ending November 26 to 388,788 tests in the week ending December 3, with -36 per cent RT-PCR share, the Union health secretary highlighted.