Centre cautions Himachal Pradesh as Kinnaur sees alarming 30% Covid positivity rate

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 30

Amid the sustained decline in Covid cases nationally, the Centre on Wednesday listed 84 districts, including Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur, for continued containment to prevent future surge.

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Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has written to the chief secretaries of 15 states, urging them to continue with restrictions in districts reporting over 10 per cent positivity rate and over 60 per cent occupancy of ICU and oxygen-supported beds.

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In the letter to Himachal Chief Secretary Anil Khachi, Bhushan said Kinnaur had a high positivity rate of 30.03 per cent against the national weekly rate of around 3.1 per cent. The letters were also sent to Rajasthan, Manipur, Sikkim, Tripura, West Bengal, Puducherry, Odisha, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Andhra Pradesh.

These states house 84 districts with more than 10 per cent positivity rate, presenting a looming impact of the second wave. The proportion of rapid antigen tests in the overall testing of Kinnaur is much higher at 61 per cent than the proportion of the RT-PCR, which is 39 per cent.

“The flexibilities being allowed and activities being permitted across the state must be done in a calibrated and cautious manner,” Bhushan said.

He said it had been observed that Kinnaur district with high positivity rate required strict enforcement interventions to control transmission.

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