Conduct random RTPCR of 2% international passengers: Centre to states, UTs

All positive samples will be sent for genome sequencing, and concerned people will be advised isolation and clinical management as per the health ministry guidelines

Union health ministry on Wednesday wrote to states and Union territories reiterating its guidelines issued on June 9, for revised Covid-19 surveillance, including random screening of 2% passengers via RT-PCR in each incoming flight.

The ministry had on June 9, issued ‘operational guidelines for revised surveillance strategy in context of Covid-19’, in the pretext of the spread of the new Omicron sub-lineages BA.4 and BA.5 in many states. (Sakib Ali /HT)

All positive samples will be sent for genome sequencing, and concerned people will be advised isolation and clinical management as per the health ministry guidelines.

In hospitals also, 5% samples of influenza like illness cases will be tested for Covid.

States have also been asked to keep a watch on any emerging clusters or outbreaks.

In a letter written by health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, the ministry said that the focus of states should be on early detection, testing and timely management of suspected and confirmed Covid cases. The state governments were also directed to monitor long-term epidemiological trends through established genomic surveillance strategies.

“Surveillance will focus on detection and containment of outbreaks of new SARS-CoV-2 variants and monitoring the trends of existing variants,” the letter said.

The ministry had on June 9, issued ‘operational guidelines for revised surveillance strategy in context of Covid-19’, in the pretext of the spread of the new Omicron sub-lineages BA.4 and BA.5 in many states.

The guidelines said that international passengers coming reaching India, will be randomly screened in each incoming flights through RT-PCR tests and all samples will be sent for genome sequencing. Healthcare facilities across states and UTs have also been directed to all influenza-like illnesses and closely monitor patients coming in with severe acute respiratory illnesses. Directions were also issued to have a three-pronged approach towards genome sequencing.

“I am sure state governments and UT administrations shall make best use of these guidelines to enable us to retain and build on the gains made so far in this collective fight against Covid-19,” the health secretary’s letter read.

The operational guidelines have been issued with the long-term goal of expanding and fully integrate covid surveillance with the government’s integrated disease surveillance programme that tracks and documents about at least 20 outbreak- prone diseases from across the country.

The states have been asked to disseminate these guidelines till the district level.

India has seen a surge in new Covid cases over the past few weeks in certain states, with 16,343 new cases having been reported on Wednesday taking the total number of cases to 43.44 million so far since the first case was reported on January 30, 2020.