As coronavirus cases are rising across India again; Union Minister, Mansukh Mandaviya directed states to remain cautious and prepared to combat the spread.
The meeting was chaired on Friday through video conferencing with the ministry urging the State Health Ministers and union territories to conduct mock drills at all hospitals on April 10 and 11 and review preparation with district administrations on April 8 and 9.
He asked authorities to ensure adequate testing facilities and ramp up the whole genome sequencing of positive samples.
Also asked them to identify emerging hotspots by monitoring trends of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) cases.
"Apart from the new Covid variant, he said, the five-fold strategy of ‘Test-Track-Treat-Vaccinate and Adherence to COVID Appropriate Behaviour’ will work as the combating strategy to fight the spread.”
"States and UTs were briefed that India has been witnessing a steady increase in COVID-19 cases with average daily cases rising to 4,188 in the week ending April 7 from 571 in the week ending March 17, and weekly positivity up to 3.02 percent in the week ending April 7," the ministry official press release said.
However, 88,503 daily average cases have been reported globally in the same time, with the top five countries contributing 62.6 percent of global cases in the last week.
