PremiumChairing a high-level meeting, Mansukh Mandaviya reviewed the decision to resume scheduled international flights from 27 March, the vaccination situation and the level of genomic surveillance
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Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday directed government officials and experts to maintain heightened surveillance as Covid-19 cases are spiking in some Asian and European countries again.
Chairing a high-level meeting, the minister reviewed the decision to resume scheduled international flights from 27 March, the vaccination situation and the level of genomic surveillance.
“Given the rising cases in China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam and some European countries, a high-level meeting was held by the Union health minister with senior government officials and experts," news agency PTI quoted an official as saying.
"The minister has directed aggressive genomic sequencing, heightened surveillance and a high level of alertness," it added.
Senior government officials, including health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, department of biotechnology secretary Dr Rajesh Gokhale, secretary in the department of pharmaceuticals S Aparna, NITI Aayog member (health) VK Paul, ICMR director-general Dr Balram Bhargava and AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria and Dr NK Arora, the chairman of the Covid-19 working group of NTAGI, attended the meeting.
WHO alarm
Meanwhile, World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has sounded a warning regarding another massive coronavirus wave and asserted after several weeks of declines, reported cases of Covid-19 are once again increasing globally, especially in parts of Asia.
“These increases are occurring despite reductions in testing in some countries, which means the cases we are seeing are just the tip of the iceberg. And we know that when Covid-19 cases increase, so do deaths," said Tedros.
Continued local outbreaks & surges are to be expected, particularly in areas where measures to prevent transmission have been lifted, he said.
International flight resumption
This comes as the central government on Sunday said that regular international flights will resume from 27 March as the coronavirus situation in India has improved.
Due to the outbreak of Covid -19, scheduled international flight services were suspended on 23 March 2020. However, special international flights have been operating between India and about 35 other countries since July 2020 under air bubble.
Covid situation in country
India logged 2,876 new coronavirus infections, taking the total tally of Covid-19 cases to 4,29,98,938, while the active cases dipped to 32,811, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Wednesday.
The death toll climbed to 5,16,072 with 98 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.
The active cases comprise 0.08% of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate further improved to 98.72%, the ministry said.
A reduction of 1,106 cases has been recorded in the active Covid-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours, it said.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,24,50,055 and the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.20%, the ministry said.
The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 180.60 crore, it said.
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