Take Preventive Measures, Increase Vaccination: Centre Writes To 8 States, UTs Amid Omicron Rise

The letter has been written to health secretaries of Haryana, Delhi, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

Centre Writes To 8 States, UTs Amid Omicron Rise. (File Photo/ Getty)

New Delhi: The Central Government on Thursday wrote to eight states and union territories (UTs) over the rise in the number of new Covid cases. The letters have been addressed to the states reporting an increased number of Covid and Omicron cases.

The letter has been written to health secretaries of Haryana, Delhi, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan directed the states to take steps as there has been a surge in Covid cases and lessening of doubling time.

The states concerned have been asked to enhance testing, boost hospital-level preparedness, increase pace and coverage of vaccination drive.

The Centre has also directed these states to enhance the testing in a focused manner while maintaining the ratio between RT-PCR and Rapid Antigen Test. These states have also been advised to go for proactive contact tracing, and isolation and quarantine of the contacts of the positive cases, their testing and follow-up.

The states have also been asked to expedite the Covid vaccination coverage along with enforcing the Covid appropriate behaviour.

Meanwhile, the country on Thursday registered 13,154 fresh Covid cases and 268 deaths over a period of 24 hours. With the addition of the new fatalities, the death toll stands at 4,80,860.

The Omicron case count has also climbed up to 961 across the nation. However, out of the total Omicron cases, 320 have been discharged from hospitals.

So far, 22 states have reported Omicron cases, according to the Union health ministry data.