Health Ministry Warns Citizens To Follow Covid Guidelines; Kerala, Maharashtra Among Top Five Contributors
Grace Paul
New Delhi, 21st December 2022: The Union health minister on Wednesday asked people to follow COVID-appropriate behaviour, including wearing masks in crowded places, and getting vaccinated.
This is after assessing the situation of sudden spurt in COVID cases in China and some other countries including Japan, the United States of America, the Republic of Korea, and Brazil.
It was said during the meeting that Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu accounted for 84 per cent of the daily new cases reported on December 20, 2022.
“COVID is not over yet. I have directed all concerned to be alert and strengthen surveillance. We are prepared to manage any situation,” Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said.
He directed the strengthening of the surveillance system for whole genome sequencing of positive case samples to track variants through the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) network for the timely detection of newer variants that could be possibly circulating in the country.
This can facilitate the undertaking of appropriate public health measures. States and Union Territories have been requested to send samples of all COVID-19 positive cases to INSACOG Genome Sequencing Laboratories (IGSLs) on a daily basis for sequencing, to track new variants, if at all there are any, a health ministry statement said.
The statement also said that a new highly transmissible BF.7 strain of the Omicron variant is behind a wider surge of COVID infections in China
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