New Delhi: The Centre on Saturday (August 6) wrote to six states and the Union Territory of Delhi directing them to ensure adequate testing, promote COVID-appropriate behaviour and increase the pace of vaccination to control the further spread of viral infection promptly and in an effective manner. The letters were sent to the State Health Secretaries of Delhi, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Telangana on reporting a high number of COVID cases and positivity rate.
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The Health Secretary said the upcoming months are likely to witness mass gatherings in the context of various festivals to be held in different parts of the country leading to a large number of individuals undertaking intra and interstate journeys.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare directed states to ramp up testing and maintain the recommended share of RTPCR antigen tests. The states are advised to follow the five-fold strategy of test, track, treat, vaccination and adherence to COVID-appropriate behaviour within the country.
In his letter to States, the Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, The states should aim to increase the pace of vaccination for all eligible population and accelerate the administration of free precaution doses for 18+ eligible population at all government vaccination centres under the covid vaccination under Amrit Mahotsav till September 30.
Mentioning genome sequencing, the official said, “Genome sequence of prescribed samples of international passengers as well as a collection of samples from sentinel sites identified health facilities) and local clusters of new COVID-19 cases is equally important. Such samples must be sent promptly by the states and duties to the designated lab of INSACOG network for genome sequencing.
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In his letter to Secretary, Delhi, the Union Health Secretary also mentioned about districts reporting more than 10 per cent weekly positivity rate.
Meanwhile, India recorded as many as 19,406 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, informed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday.
The tally of COVID-19 cases is now at 4,41,26,994 including 1,34,793 active cases. Active cases account for 0.31 per cent of the total cases. The recovery rate is currently at 98.50 per cent. As many as 19,928 recoveries from the infection were logged in the last 24 hours thereby increasing the total recoveries to 4,34,65,552.
The single-day rise of 49 fatalities has pushed India’s COVID-19 death toll to 5,26,649, the government data added.
The daily positivity rate, as per the government data, is at 4.96 per cent and the weekly positivity rate is at 4.63 per cent. The data further informed that 87.75 crore of total tests have been conducted so far of which 3,91,187 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours.
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
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