Health ministry urges states to keep a vigil on COVID-19 patterns at district level as restrictions end on March 31

Representative image.

A day after the home ministry shot a letter to states to revoke the Disaster Management Act, 2005 in the wake of the falling COVID-19 numbers, the health ministry cautioned states to decide district level restrictions or relaxations based on local evidence.

In a letter sent to the chief secretaries of the states, health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that at the district level, there should be a constant review of emerging data of new cases based on the sustained and critical level of testing.

This, said the letter, would facilitate the evidence-based decisions for restriction or relaxation.

“Such decisions should be taken at the state/ UT level after proper analysis of the local situation, such as the emergence of new cases/clusters, case positivity, population affected, the geographical spread of cases and hospital infrastructure preparedness, keeping the district as a unit,” wrote Bhushan.

The ministry felt that as in the wake of a sustained and steep decline in COVID-19 cases, the states have been undertaking various measures to reopen economic and social activities, there is a need to follow a risk assessment-based approach on opening up without losing the gains made so far against the pandemic.

The ministry has said that restrictions would need to be imposed in districts where the COVID-19 test positivity of 10 percent or more has been reported over the last week or there is bed occupancy of more than 40 percent on either oxygen supported or ICU beds.

It emphasised that as the case trajectory may vary from state to state and there would be variation in the spread of infection within states also, there is a need to take decisions with respect to containment and restriction measures primarily at the local level by the state and district administration.

The ministry also stressed that states need to continue monitoring the sufficient availability of dedicated COVID-19 health infrastructure, in addition to adhering to the policy of test-track-treat-vaccination measures.

The focus on COVID-19 appropriate behavior such as masking and maintaining social distancing will also continue.