New Delhi (NVI): The rising coronavirus cases in states of Maharashtra and Punjab are matter of grave concern, the Union Health Ministry said today.
Addressing the health ministry briefing, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, “Two states – Maharashtra and Punjab are of ‘grave concern’ which have shown recent surge in new cases.”
He added that, “Maharashtra reported highest 28,699 cases in last 24 hours followed by Punjab with 2,254 cases. Both are reporting huge number of cases in proportion to its population.”
The health secretary also informed that, besides them, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are of concern too. Gujarat reporting around 17,00 cases daily and Madhya Pradesh around 1,500 cases.
“Most cases in Gujarat concentrated in Surat, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot and Bhavnagar, while in Madhya Pradesh, it’s concentrated in Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Ujjain & Betul,” he said.
Bhushan further shared details of top 10 districts with maximum active cases which are namely Pune, Nagpur, Mumbai, Thane, Nashik, Aurangabad, Nanded, Jalgaon, Akola. “Nine districts from Maharashtra and one from Karnataka,” he added.
The health ministry in its briefing also stated that the way to fight the coronavirus, which is making a resurgence, is to suppress the chain of transmission, follow COVID-appropriate behaviour and conduct more tests.
During the briefing, NITI Aayog (health) member VK Paul termed the situation as concerning and said the solution lies in strengthening surveillance as it was done last year.
He added that vaccination must be stepped up in these states.
Paul also said, “We have adequate supplies of vaccine for the COVID-19 vaccination program that has been brought forth. There is no inadequacy of vaccine supply.”
-RJV
