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After Covid surge in South East Asia, Centre sends warning note to states
The government's five-fold 'test, track, treat, vaccinate, and adhere to Covid-appropriate behaviour' was underlined in the letter.
Faced by a fresh surge in coronavirus cases in southeast Asia, the government on Friday wrote to states and UTs to urge them to maintain 'agressive and sustained genome sequencing... intensified surveillance' to guard against a fourth wave of cases in the country. The government's five-fold 'test, track, treat, vaccinate, and adhere to Covid-appropriate behaviour' was underlined in the letter. India this morning registered 2,528 new cases in the previous 24 hours - the fifth straight day with daily cases below the 3,000-mark.
Also Read| India sees less than 3,000 Covid cases for 5th day amid global surge
The low daily case numbers in India are a startling contrast to those reported by other countries in the region, including China, Hong Kong and South Korea, where infections have spiked partly because of the spread of a 'stealth' sub-variant of the Omicron strain.
A decrease in case has been observed in India following a rapid surge triggered by Omicron, the centre's letter, written by union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, said.
States/UTs should ensure awareness of and adherence to Covid protocols - wearing of face masks, social distancing in public areas, and effective hand and respiratory hygiene, he said.
In January, metros - Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Kolkata - recorded spikes in cases. As daily cases dropped, states were told to ease curbs in a letter dated February 25. Now, though, with cases increasing elsewhere in the world, the government has sounded an alert.
"It is imperative states and union territories observe all precautions and not let the guard down while resuming economic activity," the centre said in its latest communication.
A high-level meeting was chaired by union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday, in which he directed officials to maintain a high-level of alertness, conduct genome sequencing regularly and intensify Covid-19 surveillance.
So far India has recorded over 4.30 crore cases and 5.16 lakh deaths across three waves.
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The good news is active cases have seen steep and steady decline since January, when they numbered over 22 lakh. This morning the figure was below 30,000.
The bad news is that a resurgence in other parts of the world - particularly if the variant discovered in Israel (BA.1 + BA.2) is as transmissble as Omicron - could lead to a fourth wave in India, which is set to fully open international flights from March 27.
According to the World Health Organization, cases began surging globally last week, with over 11 million reported in that period and the Asia-Pacific region leading that surge.
