With Kerala witnessing a fresh spike in Covid-19 cases, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla on Thursday asked the state government to impose night curfew in areas of high positivity and curb mass gatherings during the festive season.
Bhalla reviewed the Covid-19 situation in Kerala and Maharashtra – the two states that continue to report high numbers of Covid-19 cases at a time when the pandemic appeared to have ebbed in other parts of the country.
The Home Secretary, during a virtual meeting with top officers from the two states, asked them to make more efforts to arrest the increase in infections.
Of the 46,164 fresh coronavirus cases recorded in the country on Thursday morning, 31,445 were in Kerala and 5,031 in Maharashtra.
Bhalla suggested stepping up contact tracing, vaccination drives and Covid appropriate behavior in geographical areas having higher infection.
He also suggested that the state governments should explore the possibility of placing night curfew in areas of high positivity.
Bhalla assured the states that the Centre was ready to provide more vaccine doses to the states, if required.
However, efforts must be made to consume the vaccine doses received.
Bhalla advised that events with potential of having mass gatherings during the coming festive season must be avoided and testing must be ramped up in areas where positivity rates were on the higher side.
“Focus should also be placed over the next few months to suppress the levels of transmission of the virus so that the chain of transmission can be controlled more effectively,” a Home Ministry spokesperson said.
Besides Bhalla, V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, Sujeet Singh, Director, National Centre for Communicable Disease and Chief Secretaries and Directors General of Police of Kerala and Maharashtra attended the meeting.