Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya holds a high-level meeting with state health ministers on Wednesday, December 20, over the rise in COVID-19 cases and detection of a new variant.
"It is time to work together with a 'Whole of Government' approach, through closely working with each other. We need to be on the alert, but there is no need to panic. It is important to be prepared with mock drills of hospital preparedness, increased surveillance and effective communication with people. A mock drill should be done in all hospitals once every three months. I assure all support of the Centre to States. Health is not an area of politics," Mandaviya said.
VK Paul, Member-health, Niti Aayog said, "Currently, there are around 2300 active cases of COVID-19 in the country. The upsurge is due to COVID JN.1 variant. There is no need to panic. Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Goa and Karnataka have cases. In the last two weeks, 16 deaths were reported in people with serious co-morbidities."
On December 18, the Centre had asked states and union territories to maintain constant vigil amid an uptick in coronavirus cases and the detection of the first case of the new JN.1 variant in the country.
In a letter to states and union territories, Union Health Secretary Sudhansh Pant "As the COVID-19 virus continues to circulate and its epidemiology behaviour gets settled with Indian weather conditions and circulation of other usual pathogens, it is important to keep the momentum going to effectively deal with the challenges in public health."
Recently, a few states like Kerala have reported a slight increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, Pant noted.
India's first case of COVID-19 sub-variant JN.1 was detected in Kerala on December 8. Earlier, a traveller from Tamil Nadu's Tiruchirapalli district tested positive for the JN.1 variant in Singapore.
States have been urged to ensure effective compliance of the detailed operational guidelines for revised surveillance strategy for COVID-19 as has been shared by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Pant stressed on the need to increase the number of RT-PCR tests and send positive samples for genome sequencing to Indian SARS COV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) laboratories to enable timely detection of new variants, if any, in the country.
With inpiuts from PTI
First Published: Dec 20, 2023 10:25 AM IST
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