As cases continue to rise unabated across Maharashtra, State health secretary Dr Pradeep Vyas along with his team of experts has prepared a seven-point Covid-19 containment strategy. This plan includes universal or community-wide testing in hotspots (via RT-PCR or rapid antigen kits) where the contacts will be extensively traced within 48 hours and will be tested.
The team which prepared the strategy has reviewed the levels of Covid spread in Nagpur, Pune, Mumbai, Amaravati, Yavatmal and Thane. And it has suggested that all districts should follow the same strategy. The plan also includes provisions of institutional quarantine facilities, audits of all Covid deaths, and restrictions on the size of social events, reported Times of India.
“All districts have to follow this protocol and collectors are expected to provide detailed reports,” Dr Vyas said on Tuesday.
Over the past 12 days, Maharashtra recorded a whopping surge in the daily cases across Vidarbha, Marathwada, Pune and Mumbai regions. The central team visited these regions and worked with state officials to chalk out the containment plan.
State surveillance officer Dr Pradeep Awate stated that the newly-formed strategy applies to all districts, not just the ones seeing spikes.
While state technical expert Dr Subhash Salunke said scores have been ignoring Covid protocols. “People must follow the ‘SMS’ strategy, which means Sanitiser, Mask, and Social distancing. All non-essential services should be controlled and all large gatherings should be discouraged,” he said.
Dr Salunke added that private medical practitioners too were ignoring protocols by not checking patients for symptoms. The medical practitioners have urged for strict monitoring of all home-isolated patients and these patients should not be allowed to step out of the home without an all-clear certificate from the health department.
On Tuesday, Maharashtra reported 9,927 new Covid-19 cases which took the caseload to 22,38,398, while 56 fatalities pushed up the death count to 52,556. On the other hand, 12,182 patients were discharged from hospitals during the day, taking the tally of recoveries to 20,89,294. There are 95,322 active cases in the state now.
Pune city reported the highest 1,110 new cases, taking its tally to 1,01,389. Mumbai reported 1,012 new cases taking its tally to 3,35,595, while two deaths took the fatality count to 11,510.
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