Weekend Lockdowns Not Enough, Centre Tells Odisha & Eight Other States

New Delhi: Nine states, including Odisha, are a cause of concern for the Centre.

“These nine states are new concern areas for us,” said a union government official. “…several issues of compliance and Covid-19 management have come up in these states,” he was reported as saying in Hindustan Times (HT).

Besides Odisha, the official was referring to Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, West Bengal and Assam.

Two to three-day lockdowns alone are not enough to contain COVID-19, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba told Chief Secretaries of the nine states at a special review meeting on Friday while cautioning against the delay in procurement of testing kits, HT quoted officials as saying

Warning that delay might have “grave consequences” Gauba added that some states have demonstrated “the situation can be turned around” while others have “showed how it can deteriorate.”

Referring to the weekend lockdowns in many states, systematic containment and surveillance would be required. The states should also strengthen hospital infrastructure and clinical management, representatives were told at the meeting.

Gauba pointed out delay in decisions has shown grave consequences in some cases and asked the states to ensure advance procurement plans for testing kits and other medical equipment.

An official said the rate of testing suddenly dropped in some states and they did not have enough antigen kits, HT reported.