Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya is holding a meeting to review the COVID-19 situation given the fresh surge in cases in other countries, especially China.
Central health authorities have asked states and union territories to gear up for genome sequencing of positive samples and track variants of the virus through the government’s covid network.
On Tuesday, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan directed all states/UTs to ensure that as far as possible samples of all positive cases are sent to the designated INSACOG laboratories on a daily basis. He said operational guidelines for revised surveillance strategy in context of COVID-19 issued by the Ministry of Health in June calls for an early detection, isolation, testing, and timely management of suspected and confirmed cases to detect and contain outbreaks of new SARS-CoV-2 variants. Therefore, monitoring the trends of existing variants is of crucial importance.
However, top government scientists at NTAGI, INSACOG and National Institute of Virology said that covid cases are fewer in India and that the country is in a comfortable position due to extensive vaccination and herd immunity in the population.
Mandaviya has also written to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to follow appropriate covid behaviour during Bharat Jodo Yatra or else discontinue the march in public interest.
As of now, Karnataka has 1,272 active cases, Kerala has 1,436 cases, Maharashtra 132 active cases, Odisha 98 cases, Rajasthan 53 cases, Tamil Nadu 47, Uttar Pradesh 95, and West Bengal has 43 active cases.
India has conducted over 1,15,734 tests in the last 24 hours.
Under the covid vaccination drive, more than 220 crore vaccine doses have been administered to the people across the country so far. In the last 24 hours, around 53,872 doses were administered.
