Strengthen testing, tracking, treatment strategy during festivals: Centre to Delhi, Kerala, Bengal

Centre on Thursday vised Delhi, Kerala and West Bengal, witnessing a significant rise in coronavirus cases, to gear up testing, tracking and treatment strategy during festive season and put an ditional thrust on public awareness as well as enforcement of COVID-appropriate behaviour.

A review meeting on status of COVID-19 infection in Delhi, West Bengal and Kerala was held by Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan in presence of V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, and ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava on Thursday, according to a Health Ministry statement.

West Bengal has registered 3,924 new cases in a day with aver daily cases recording a 23 per cent increase over last four weeks, it said. state has 37,111 active cases, its case fatality rate stands at 1.84 per cent and positivity rate at 8.3 per cent.

"re is one per cent increase in positivity rate over last four weeks. Darjeeling, Nia, Medinipur West, Jalpaiguri, Hooghly are top districts showing an increasing trend in cases. Also, Murshidab, Nia, Coochbehar, Kolkata and Darjeeling have registered an increase in weekly deaths last week. tests per million population stand at 41,261 whereas national aver is 77,220," statement said.

ministry said state authorities were vised to strictly follow 'test-track-treat' strategy and t to compromise on testing, keep level of daily tests at a higher level with a greater proportion of RT-PCR tests.

"It was vised to ensure a proper standard of care and early identification as well as early hospitalisation of cases. It was also suggested to regularly monitor symptom development and hospitalization trend amongst patients in home isolation," it said, ding Bengal has also been told to focus on rapid contact tracing and effective isolation.

COVID-19 cases in Kerala are also showing a rising trend. state registered 98,778 cases in last 14 days, while in a 24-hour period it recorded maximum 8,790 instances of infection.

"Thrissur, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Pathanamthitta, Malappuram are top districts showing an increasing trend in coronavirus cases. state has demonstrated better results in terms of COVID fatality. fatality rate stood at 0.34 per cent, although re has been an increase in weekly deaths in Thrissur (133 per cent), Kollam (75 per cent), Alappuzha (31 per cent), Ernakulam (30 per cent), and Kannur (15 per cent)," health ministry said.

ting that increase in new cases due to festivities was a matter of grave concern, Kerala has been suggested to ramp up information, education and communication (IEC) practices and promote mask-wearing with more rigour.  "While Kerala has been monitoring contact tracing activities across borders with neighbouring districts and states, certain districts with very high positivity rates, like Malappuram, need to enforce better manment," ministry said.

In Delhi, re has been nearly 46 per cent increase in new cases over past four weeks, and positivity rate during same period has escalated by nearly nine per cent.

" rising cases were attributed to social garings during festivities, deteriorating air quality, increasing incidences of respiratory disorders and clusters of positive cases at workplaces. Fatigue among frontline workers was also discussed," it said.

national capital was vised to aggressively ramp up testing, increase RT-PCR tests, focus on contact tracing and effectively enforce isolation of traced contacts within first 72 hours.

It was vised to focus on containment zones and strict implementation of perimeter control according to MHA guidelines. health authorities were vised to give ditional thrust to IEC practices and proactively promote wearing of masks and or COVID appropriate behaviours, health ministry said.

(Photo Credit: PTI)