The rise in test positivity rate (TPR) for Covid-19 in Maharashtra, compared to the country’s TPR, has raised concerns. The Centre has written a letter to the principal secretary of health, Maharashtra, asking to identify from where the cluster of cases have been reported and to take pro-active measures regarding the same. On Thursday the state reported 226 new cases, of which Mumbai accounted for 35. The state and city have 926 and 185  active cases respectively. Rajesh Bhushan, secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, wrote a letter to the secretary of  public health department, Maharashtra, saying, “There is a need to follow a risk assessment-based approach to prevent and contain the infection, without losing the gains made so far in the fight against the pandemic.”

‘Monitor new clusters’

He stressed on monitoring new and emerging clusters of new Covid-19 cases, 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 the infection. A rise in Covid cases has been noted specifically in certain parts of the country with a total of 2,082 cases reported in the week ending March 8, which rose to 3,264 cases in the week ending March 15. Maharashtra reported a positivity rate of 1.92 per cent in the week ending March 15, which is higher than India’s positivity rate of 0.61 per cent during the same period. The state has been asked to examine the situation of Covid-19 at the micro (district and sub-district) level and maintain focus on the implementation of necessary measures.