MHA cautions States ahead of festivals

New Delhi: Ahead of the festival season, the Centre Saturday asked all States and union territories to ensure there is no large gathering and that they take pro-active measures to check the spread of coronavirus.

Extending the ongoing COVID-19 guidelines for one more month till September 30, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said the overall pandemic situation now appears to be largely stable at the national level, except for the localised spread observed in a few states.

The total number of active cases and high case positivity in some districts continue to remain a matter of concern, he told the chief secretaries of all states and UTs in identical letters.

According to the Union Health Ministry data updated at 8 am Saturday, 46,759 people tested positive for COVID-19 in the country in the previous 24 hours.

"The state governments and UT administrations concerned, having high positivity in their districts, should take pro-active containment measures so as to effectively arrest the spike in cases and to contain the spread of transmission.

"It is important to identify warning signs of potential surges early on and to take appropriate measures to curb the spread. This would require a localised approach, as has been mentioned in Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) advisories dated April 25 and June 28," he said.