Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will hold a meeting Wednesday with senior officials and experts to review the Covid-19 situation in the country — India has been reporting around 1,200 cases a week.
With Covid-19 cases on the rise in several countries including China, the Union Health Ministry raised an alert Tuesday and directed all states and UTs to sequence all positive case samples on a daily basis.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will hold a meeting Wednesday with senior officials and experts to review the Covid-19 situation in the country — India has been reporting around 1,200 cases a week.
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In a letter to the states and UTs, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, “In view of the sudden spurt of cases being witnessed in Japan, United States of America, Republic of Korea, Brazil and China, it is essential to gear up the whole genome sequencing of positive case samples to track the variants through Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) network. Such an exercise will enable timely detection of newer variants, if any, circulating in the country and will facilitate the undertaking of requisite public health measures for the same.”
Currently, the INSACOG network of over 50 laboratories across the country has been sequencing only select samples – positive cases detected among 2% of international passengers tested at random, samples from designated sentinel sites, and samples from any cluster or outbreak in the community, according to the guidelines for surveillance by the Health Ministry. In addition, laboratories have also been testing for viral RNA in the sewage system.
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Other than increased surveillance, there has been no change in protocol for international arrivals as of now. The protocol revised last month does away with the need for either a negative RT-PCR or a complete vaccination certificate. It said inbound passengers should “preferably be fully vaccinated as per the approved primary schedule of vaccination against Covid-19 in their country.”