With the consistent decline in daily Covid cases, the government, on Wednesday, revoked the provisions of the Disaster Management Act (DM Act) for Covid containment measures from March 31. Based on the recommendations made by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to not further invoke the provisions of DM Act, Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla wrote to all States/UTs to discontinue the orders issued under the Act. The DM Act was first enacted in 2005 when the country was hit by Tsunami in 2004, which led to loss of thousands of lives. The Act provides a legal framework for disaster management in the country, with Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) being the nodal Ministry.

The decision comes at a time when the neighbouring country such as China is still battling with the resurgence in cases caused by Omicron. However, the Centre has advised all States/UTs to continue with the protocols of mask-wearing and maintaining hand hygiene.

It is to be noted that the Centre had invoked the provisions of DM Act first time in March, 2020 to take effective Covid containment measures. Last time, it issued Covid-related advisory under the Sct on Febraury 25, 2022, which is slated to expire on March 31. “Over the last 24 months, significant capacities have been developed for various aspects of management of the pandemic, such as diagnostics, surveillance, contact tracing, treatment and vaccination, hospital infrastructure, and the general public has much higher level of awareness on Covid-appropriate behaviour,” the official letter stated.

There has been a steep decrease in daily Covid cases over the last seven weeks, with daily positivity rate coming down to 0.28 per cent. Also, the Centre has so far administered more than 181.56 crore of vaccine doses against the virus, according to the letter.

Prompt action recommended

The Centre also cautioned States/UTs against the unpredictable nature of Covid, and asked them to remain vigilant. “Whenever any surge in the number of cases is observed, States/UTs may consider taking prompt and proactive action at local level, as advised by the MoHFW from time to time.”

Meanhwile, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, in a separte letter, said that all State/UTs must continue with the advisory issued by the Health Ministry on February 18, 2022, regarding recommended strategies for testing, surveillance and containment based restrictions, keeping the district as a unit for decision making. “Focus will be on graded relaxation of activities to support the economic activities. Social/sportsneterinment/academic.... related gatherings may be resumed. The decision to be taken by the concerned States,” said the letter.

On Wednesday, India reported 1,778 Covid cases with 62 deaths in the last 24 hours till 8:00 am, according to Health Ministry data. The weekly positivity and the daily positivity rate in the county stood at 0.36 per cent and 0.26 per cent, respectively.