New Delhi: In a hard-hitting letter, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Tuesday warned Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray that the state is “in the beginning of a second wave of COVID.”

Amid the rapid spread of novel coronavirus, the Centre has asked the Maharashtra government to aim on strict and effective containment strategy as the measures such as night curfews, weekend lockdowns and more have very limited impact on curtailing the COVID-19 outbreak.

Centre’s reply comes on the findings of a Central team of experts positioned to Maharashtra to monitor the spike in COVID-19 cases in the state. Maharashtra on Monday reported over 15,000 new cases, which took its total to 23,29,464. Also, 48 deaths were reported on Monday.

In his letter to Maharashtra, Bhushan asked the state to decrease the state’s test positivity rate and step up contact-tracing and vaccinations. The letter read, “Measures such as night curfews, weekend lockdowns and more have very limited impact on containing or suppressing the transmission. Hence the district administration should focus on strict and effective containment strategy.”

The letter said that the current case fatality was found to be very high among admitted cases in hospitals in Aurangabad and Nashik. This needed investigation in detail, including sending samples for Whole Genome Sequencing, Bhushan stated.

Bhushan also said “Maharashtra is in the beginning of a second wave of COVID-19 pandemic. There very limited active effort to track, test, isolate cases and quarantine contacts. There is no adherence to COVID appropriate behaviour among people both in rural and urban areas.”

Meanwhile, the state government announced new restrictions in the state where religious, social gatherings banned amid a surge in spread of COVID-19 cases.

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