COVID-19 cases surge in India,Centre issues health advisory to states

KOLKATA | Updated: 18 December, 2023 8:05 pm IST

KOLKATA: As the Health Ministry goes on the back foot regarding the resurgence of coronavirus once more in the country, sent an advisory to all the states, on Monday.

Sudhansh Pant, Union Health Secretary, sent the letter, highlighting the need for maintaining a state of constant vigil over the COVID-19 situation. “Centre is issuing the advisory to States given a recent upsurge in COVID-19 cases and detection of the first case of JN.1 variant in India,” said the notice.

Considering the Christmas week that is slated to arrive, all of the states were advised to put in place requisite public health measures. The maintenance of respiratory hygiene is being amplified to minimise the risk of the disease’s transmission.

 

States have been urged to maintain a state of constant vigil over the COVID situation. The Union Ministry said that the states are to report and monitor district-wise, Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) and influenza-like illnesses (ILI) on a regular basis.

All the states have been advised to ensure adequate testing including a higher number of RT-PCR tests. The positive samples for genome sequencing are slated to be sent to INSACOG laboratories.

The advisory has also prodded the States to ensure active participation of all public and private health facilities in the exercise conducted by the union ministry.

States were also asked to promote community awareness to seek their continued support in managing the infectivity of the virus while adhering to respiratory hygiene.

 

Recently the Union Health Ministry confirmed the presence of coronavirus subvariant JN.1 in India as Kerala reported its first case in an RT-PCR positive sample from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, on December 8.

According to reports, the sample was tested positive on November 18, where the patient had shown mild symptoms of ILI. Since then, the ministry has highlighted that the patient has recovered.

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