The Union Health Ministry has requested the State government of Telangana to examine the rising number of COVID-19 cases at a micro level and follow a five-fold strategy to combat the virus. The strategy includes test, track, treat, vaccination, and adherence to COVID-19 appropriate behavior. The Union Health Secretary, Rajesh Bhushan, wrote to the State Health Secretary, SAM Rizvi, on Thursday, urging the State to take prompt and effective measures to manage COVID-19 while ensuring compliance with various advisories issued by the Ministry.
Although the country had observed a significant decline in the number of COVID-19 cases during the past few months, a rise in cases has been noted in certain parts of the country in recent weeks. In the week ending March 8, a total of 2,082 cases were reported, which rose to 3,264 cases in the week ending March 15. Some states are reporting higher numbers of cases, indicating a possible localized spread of infection. Therefore, a risk assessment-based approach is necessary to prevent and contain the infection without losing the gains made so far in the fight against the pandemic.
Telangana has reported an increase in weekly cases from 132 in the week ending March 8 to 267 in the week ending March 15. The State reported a positivity rate of 0.31 percent in the week ending March 15. The State has been advised to focus on adequate and proactive testing as per guidelines, monitoring new and emerging clusters of new COVID-19 cases, monitoring of Influenza-like illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) cases in all health facilities or through dedicated fever clinics on a regular basis for detecting early warning signals of the spread of infection, genomic sequencing for prescribed samples of international passengers, collection of samples from sentinel sites (identified health facilities), and local clusters of cases.
