PremiumThe govt urged the states to improve the testing in areas with high positivity, increase surveillance as per the revised surveillance strategy and speed up Covid vaccination
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The central government on Wednesday reviewed the Covid-19 situation of 115 districts in nine states that are showing an uptick in cases.
During the review, the states – Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh – were advised to be attentive to clinical symptoms of Covid patients and also strictly monitor home isolation cases.
It was pointed out that the average tests per million population is below the national average in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh.
The government also informed that the share of RT-PCR tests is very low in the states of Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam and below the national average in the states of Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and West Bengal.
“We need to be mindful that Covid has not gone. Looking at the global scenario, we need to be on high alert. There is poor surveillance, poor testing and below-average vaccination in many states undergoing the present surge," said VK Paul, member (health) of Niti Aayog.
In view of this, Paul urged the states to improve the testing in areas with high positivity, increase surveillance as per the revised surveillance strategy and speed up Covid vaccination.
Further, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan directed that all districts reporting higher positivity rates need to undertake adequate testing with a higher proportion of RT-PCR tests.
“Any laxity will result in deterioration of the situation in these districts," he said, adding that states should conduct surveillance as per a revised surveillance strategy issued on 9 June.
Stated were also directed to report district-wise SARI (severe acute respiratory illness) and ILI (influenza-like illness) cases on a daily basis. These samples also need to be sent for genome sequencing to mapped INSACOG labs.
It was also emphasised that states need to accelerate the administration of ongoing free Covid-19 vaccination for the first, second and precaution doses.
Covid situation in country
This comes as India recorded 20,557 fresh Covid-19 infections in the 24 hours ending on Wednesday morning, as per the Union health ministry data. With this, the country's active caseload currently stands at 1,45,654. The death toll has climbed to 5,25,825 with 40 new fatalities.
The current recovery rate is at 98.47% as India saw 18,517 recoveries in the last 24 hours, which took the total recoveries to 4,31,32,140.
So far, 87.06 crore Covid tests have been conducted in the country, of which 4,98,034 tests were conducted between Tuesday and Wednesday.
Under the nationwide vaccination drive, India has administered a total of 200.61 crore vaccines against the Covid-19 infection, which included 92.71 crore second doses and 6.11 crore precaution doses.