Centre nudges states again to calibrate relaxations of Covid restrictions

Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla said the process of relaxing restrictions should be carefully calibrated and prompt and targeted actions need to be implemented by the states in line with the health ministry’s advisory on Covid management.

New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday told all states and union territories to consider implementation of “targeted and prompt” action for Covid-19 management and told them to focus on a five-fold strategy for effective Covid-19 management.

Thane:The police was called to maintain the crowd as chaos and confusion prevailed in the morning at District Nurses' Training Centre, in Thane, Mumbai, India, on Tuesday. (HT PHOTO/Praful Gangurde)

Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla’s communication also reiterated that states must not stop laying emphasis on adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour which it said, was crucial to guard against any surge in the number of cases.

Bhalla, who pitched for a calibrated relaxation of restrictions, asked district magistrates to use Section 144 of the Criminal Procedural Code (CrPC) to enforce social distancing and to charge people under the Disaster Management Act if they violate social distancing protocol.

“With the decline in the number of active cases, many States and UTS have started relaxing restrictions. The process of relaxing restrictions should be carefully calibrated; and prompt and targeted actions need to be implemented by the States and UTs in line with the advisory of MoHFW (ministry of health and family welfare),” Bhalla said in his letter to state chief secretaries and administrators of union territories.

Home secretary Bhalla told states to regularly monitor districts with a higher number of active cases per million population, asserting that this would be important to predict the need for upgrading health infrastructure and logistics.

The home ministry letter comes on a day the country reported the lowest single-day spike since March 17 and less than 40,000 daily cases after 102 days. India recorded 37,566 new Covid-19 cases in the 24 hours ending 8 am Tuesday, taking the country’s total to 3.03 crore. With 907 new deaths, the toll is now at 3.97 lakh.