New Delhi, Aug 27 (IANS): Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla on Thursday reviewed the measures taken by the Kerala and Maharashtra governments for checking the spread of Covid-19, through a video conference.

During the meeting, the overall management of Covid-19 situation in Kerala and Maharashtra was discussed while Bhalla observed that more efforts would be required to arrest the increase in infections.

"This would require adequate intervention in geographical areas having higher infection, through measures such as contact tracing, vaccination drives and Covid appropriate behaviour and he also suggested that the state governments should explore the possibility of placing night curfew in areas of high positivity," the Home Ministry officials said.

The officials also said that both states were advised to continue with their vaccination programmes and in case they required more vaccines, the same would be provided to the extent possible.

During the meeting, it was emphasized that along with vaccination, the Covid appropriate behaviour must also continue to be encouraged and events with potential of having mass gatherings during the coming festive season must be avoided.

"It was also advised that testing must be ramped up in areas in the two states where positivity rates are being found to be on the higher side. Focus should also be placed over the next few months to suppress the levels of transmission of the virus so that the chain of transmission can be controlled more effectively", the officials who were privy to this meeting said.

NITI Aayog Member Dr V.K. Paul, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Director, National Centre for Communicable Disease (NCDC)and Chief Secretaries and Directors General of Police of Kerala and Maharashtra were present in the meeting.

Following the huge number of cases that were reported in Kerala, the Union Health Ministry decided to depute a high-level multidisciplinary team to the state and a six member central team headed by National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Director, was sent to Kerala on July 30.

Earlier, the Union Health Secretary had also flagged in the Kerala government on the super spreader events observed in Kerala in the recent past and also reminded the state government that Covid guidelines needed to be followed properly.