Amid a surge in coronavirus cases being reported from some parts of the country, Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday chaired a meeting with officials and experts and directed them to continue to focus on surveillance and whole-genome sequencing to identify possible variants and stressed on effective monitoring to assess the spread of the virus in a timely manner.
Mandiviya, who chaired a meeting with key experts and members of NITI Aayog, advised the officials to strictly focus on districts reporting high case positivity and undertake adequate testing (with a higher proportion of RT-PCR). He also asked officials to monitor hospitalisations due to Covid-19, and SARI/ILI cases.
The minister also appealed to states and Union territories to increase the pace of vaccination, including booster doses, in districts reporting high cases. "As there is adequate vaccine doses available, let there be no vaccine wastage, while focusing on accelerating vaccination among the eligible and vulnerable groups," he said
For the past few days, India has been witnessing a sharp jump in Covid cases. A total of 10 states -- Maharashtra, Kerala, Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal and Gujarat -- have over 1,000 active cases.
Kerala health minister Veena George told news agency ANI there is no need to panic about the marginal rise in Covid-19 cases, adding the state health department is monitoring the situation. “There's a slight rise in the number of Covid cases but no need to worry. No new variant is there, the current variant is Omicron. Hospital occupancy is not at all increasing, the state health department monitoring the situation”.
{{/usCountry}}Kerala health minister Veena George told news agency ANI there is no need to panic about the marginal rise in Covid-19 cases, adding the state health department is monitoring the situation. “There's a slight rise in the number of Covid cases but no need to worry. No new variant is there, the current variant is Omicron. Hospital occupancy is not at all increasing, the state health department monitoring the situation”.
{{/usCountry}}India reported 13,313 Covid cases in the last 24 hours - eight per cent higher than yesterday and the first time daily new cases breached the 13,000-mark since February 25. The country also reported 38 Covid-related deaths - up from 13 seen a day ago.