New Delhi, Feb 27 (UNI) Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Saturday strongly underlined that the states witnessing surge in Novel Coronavirus cases need to conduct effective testing, comprehensive tracking, prompt isolation of positive cases and enforce Covid appropriate behaviour.
Mr Gauba said this, while chairing a virtual high-level review meeting with Chief Secretaries of Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Telangana and Jammu & Kashmir, which have reported a high active caseload or an increasing trend in new cases in the last week.
The states of Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat have shown a surge in new cases in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a statement here.
Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at 8,333. It is followed by Kerala with 3,671 cases, while Punjab reported 622 new cases in the last 24 hours.
In the last two weeks, Maharashtra has shown the highest rise in active cases from 34,449 on February 14 to 68,810 currently.
The Chief Secretaries briefed about the current situation in the states and their preparedness to tackle the recent spike of COVID cases.
They informed about the enforcement of COVID Appropriate Behaviour by levying heavy fines and challans, reviewing the surveillance and containment activities closely with the District Collectors, and other steps being taken in line with the guidelines provided by the MoHFW and the MHA.
The Cabinet Secretary reiterated that States need to maintain a continued rigorous vigil in terms of containing the spread and not squander away the gains of the collective hard work of the last year.
They were advised not to lower their guard, enforce COVID Appropriate Behaviour and deal firmly with violations.
The meeting was attended by the Chief Secretaries and senior health professionals of the States/UTs, along with the Union Health Secretary, the DG ICMR, NITI Aayog Empowered Group members, and representatives from the Home Ministry.
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