Rajesh Bhushan, the Union Health Secretary, on Wednesday, has written to all the states and Union Territories asking them to curb crowding in the wake of New Year celebration. He also asked them to keep a strict vigil on all events that could be a potential superspreader.

“The Union Health Secretary has written to all the states to keep a strict vigil on all events that could be potential “superspreader” events and to curb crowding in the wake of the New Year celebrations and various events associated with it as well as on-going winter season,” the Health Ministry said in a statement.

India, on Wednesday, had reported 14 cases of the new coronavirus strain that emerged in the United Kingdom, taking the total number of the new mutant strain Covid-19 cases to 20, according to a government data.

On Tuesday, the government had reported the first six cases of the new strain of Covid-19.

The Health Ministry, on Tuesday, said that genome sequencing will be conducted on all the international passengers who were symptomatic and tested positive for coronavirus and have arrived in India in the last 14 days, between December 9 and 22.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has mandated that States and UTs, based on their assessment of the situation, may impose local restrictions with a view to containing the spread of Covid-19, such as night curfew.

Drawing attention to this, the Health Secretary has urged the States to promptly assess the local situation and consider the imposition of appropriate restrictions on December 30 and 31, 2020 as well as on January 1, 2021.

The Health Ministry has also recommended to the Ministry of Civil Aviation the extension of the temporary suspension of flights originating from the UK into India to be further extended till 7 January (Thursday), 2021.

This has been recommended based on the inputs received from the Joint Monitoring Group (JMG) headed by the Director-General of Health Services (DGHS) and the National Task Force jointly headed by DG, ICMR and Member (Health), NITI Aayog.

It has also been suggested to Ministry of Civil Aviation that after 7th January 2021, strictly regulated resumption of a limited number of flights originating from the UK into India may be considered. The specifics of such a mechanism may be worked out by the Ministry of Civil Aviation in consultation with Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.