China’s explosive Covid surge prompts India to adopt five-fold strategy; know Health Ministry’s latest advisory

The number of Covid cases in China has prompted an alarm across several countries, especially since health experts believe that this could lead to an explosive Covid wave across the entire world. In the midst of these fears, India has issued an important advisory.

Keeping in mind the surge of Covid cases in places like China, the United States, Japan, and Brazil, the Health Ministry has started to conduct a review meeting of the coronavirus situation in India, and it is expected that a new covid advisory will be issued on Wednesday in this regard.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will review the pandemic situation on Wednesday, official sources said. It is expected that a fresh travel advisory will also be issued for international flights, especially to Japan, South Korea, Brazil, China, and the US.

For the time being, the Health Ministry urged all states and Union territories to ramp up the whole genome sequencing of positive samples to keep track of newer variants.

In a letter to states and UTs, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said 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.

He highlighted that India with its focus on the five-fold strategy of test-track-treat-vaccination and adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour has been able to restrict the transmission of the coronavirus and is having around 1,200 cases on a weekly basis.

In the health advisory, 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.”

"In this context, all states are requested to ensure that as far as possible samples of all positive cases, on a daily basis, are sent to the designated INSACOG Genome Laboratories that are mapped to states and UTs," he added, as per PTI reports.

(With PTI inputs)

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