By SUDHIR KUMAR / NEW DELHI
The union Home Ministry today issued an order to extend the earlier Guidelines for Surveillance to remain in force upto 31st January 2021. It said, while there has been a continuous decline in the active and new COVID-19 cases, there is need to maintain surveillance, containment and caution, keeping in view the surge in cases globally and emergence of a new variant of the virus in the United Kingdom.
Accordingly, Containment Zones continue to be demarcated carefully, prescribed containment measures strictly followed within these zones, COVID-appropriate behaviour promoted and strictly enforced and the Standard Operating Procedures prescribed in respect of various permitted activities followed scrupulously.
It said, therefore, the focused approach on surveillance, containment and strict observance of the guidelines or SOPs issued by Home Ministry and Health Ministry as envisaged in the Guidelines issued on 25th of last month, need to be enforced strictly by States and UTs.
The MHA said there has been a continuous decline in the number of active cases in India, but surge in cases globally.
Covid-19 in India
India’s COVID-19 recoveries rose to 97,82,669 on Monday and it exceeded active cases by more than 95 lakh, the health ministry said.
“Daily recoveries have been outnumbering daily new cases for more than a month now. In a span of 24 hours, 20,021 people were found to be COVID positive in the country. During the same period, 21,131 new recoveries were registered to ensure a drop in the active caseload,” the ministry said.