New Delhi: With some States reporting rise in weekly Covid cases, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has advised Kerala, Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra and Mizoram to take pre-emptive action to control any emerging spread of coronavirus infection.

‘A sustained and significant decline in the number of Covid-19 cases has been observed in lndia over the past 2 months, with the country reporting less than 1000 daily new cases for the past few days. Further, Weekly positivity rate has remained below 1 per cent,’ Bhushan said.

States have been advised to follow the five-fold strategy ie., test-track-treat-vaccination and adherence to Covid appropriate behaviour with a continued focus on monitoring clusters of new cases and required containment efforts for curbing the spread of infection and adequate testing and undertake required steps in areas reporting high case positivity.

Bhushan has directed all these states to continue monitoring clusters of new Covid-19 cases, perform adequate testing, undertake required steps in areas reporting high case positivity, and monitor lnfluenza-like illness (lLl) & SARI cases in all health facilities on a regular basis for detecting early warning signals of the spread of infection. The states have also been asked continue with vaccination of all eligible people.

Kerala reported 2,321 new cases in the last week, accounting to 31.8 per cent of lndia’s new cases. The weekly positivity rate in the state has also gone up to 15.53 per cent from 13.45 per cent.

Delhi has reported an increase in weekly new cases from 724 new cases in the week ending (April 1) to 826 new cases in the last week (ending April 8), accounting to 11.33 per cent of India’s new cases. It has also seen an increase in positivity in the last week from 0.51 per cent to 1.25 per cent.