After months of recovery in the number of Coronavirus cases, Maharashtra seems to be hit by the second wave of the novel COVID-19. As on March 15, the state reported 15,051 new coronavirus cases, taking the state's tally to 23,29,464. As many as 48 people succumbed to the deadly disease pushing the fatalities count to 52,909. There are currently 1,31,812 active cases in the state.
Amid the rising number of Coronavirus cases, the centre has asked the Maharashtra government to focus on strict and effective containment strategy.
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In letter to the Uddhav Thackeray-led government, the Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan warned the administration to resort to stricter strategy as measures such as night curfews, weekend lockdowns, etc. have very limited impact on curbing the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Maharashtra is in the beginning of a second wave of Covid", Bhushan reportedly said, adding that there were glaring gaps like from limited contact tracing to lack of effort to map cases and contacts.
The Union Health Secretary while writing to Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte, noted that there is no adherence to Covid appropriate behaviour among people both in rural and urban areas. eight of the top 10 districts of India in terms of active Covid-19 infections are in Maharashtra and the only way to curb the spread is to increase the pace of vaccination.
"For every positive case, at least 20 to 30 close contacts (including family contacts, social contacts' workplace contacts and other casual contacts) ,..d to be promptly traced and tracked. The field staff engaged in contact tracing training/reorientation and develop skills on interpersonal communication for contact tracing. The contacts of a positive case should be tested strictly in accordance with the ICMR guidelines (5-10 days after exposure)," Bhushan said.
Bhushan also said that the state would get another 12.74 lakh of vaccine doses by 18 March.