Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Haryana have been asked to pull up their stocks due to rising Covid-19 cases, the ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Thursday.
“Today, Maharashtra has more than 1 lakh active cases. Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Haryana are at the tipping point. We have had three meetings with these states where they have been told to pull up their socks,” Rajesh Bhushan, Union health secretary, said.
“We are very worried about Maharashtra. This is a serious matter. This has two lessons – don’t take the virus for granted and if we have to remain Covid-19 free, then we need to follow Covid-19 appropriate behaviour,” said Dr VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog at the press conference.
The Health Secretary noted that active cases in the country have overall declined. As of today, the number of active cases stands at 1,89,226. Around January 1 this year, the figure stood at over 3.5 lakh, Bhushan said.
According to him, there are 10 districts with the most active number of cases. These are Pune, Nagpur, Thane, Mumbai, Bengaluru Urban, Ernakulam, Amravati, Jalgaon, Nashik and Aurangabad.
Speaking about Kerala where the situation has visibly improved, the official said the southern state had 64,000 active cases around February 1 but the number has now come down to 35,715.
In comparison, Maharashtra has 36,917 active cases around February 1 but the figure has now reached 1,00,0240.
“Active COVID-19 cases have almost halved in Kerala and have more than doubled in Maharashtra,” the ministry said.
The ministry said cases in Maharashtra were not related to mutant variant. The surge in cases is mainly because of the wedding season and plying of local trains.
The Health Ministry said so far, a total of 2.56 crore vaccinations have been administered in the country as of Thursday, 1 pm.
