Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s review meeting comes a day after Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya chaired a meet, and asked states to step up surveillance and be alert. Mandaviya also asked people to get vaccinated and use masks, emphasising that the pandemic is “not over yet”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a high-level review meeting on Thursday in regard to the Covid-19 situation in the country, officials said. The meeting comes amid a massive surge in infection rate in China where millions of deaths have been forecast in the forthcoming months.
The prime minister will hold the meeting at 3.30pm. It comes a day after Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya reviewed the Covid-19 situation in India at a meeting that saw the attendance of NITI Aayog member (health) VK Paul, among other experts.
Following the meeting, the minister took to Twitter to stress the pandemic is not over yet even as he mentioned that India is “prepared” to combat any scenario. He asked people to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour and use masks in crowded places, and also to get vaccinated.
Among other recommendations after the Wednesday meeting that went on for over two hours, the central government asked states to strengthen surveillance and also conduct genome sequencing of positive Covid-19 samples. It was also decided that random testing of samples collected from passengers coming from China and other countries will be done.
India has detected as many as four cases of BF.7, which is the primary factor in the increasing cases in China. However, experts said that there is no need to panic because these cases were all detected in the past with the patients since recovered.
The BF.7 is not a new variant, but a sublineage of Omicron BA.5 variant.
“Four cases (BF.7) have been detected through the INSACOG system so far. One in July, two in September, and one in November this year; and despite this, there has been no escalation in cases seen so far from any part of the country. Hence no red alert, but abundant watch,” Paul told HT on Wednesday.
India has been witnessing a steady downward trend in its average daily Covid-19 case count decreasing to 158 in the week ending December 19. On Thursday, the country logged 187 fresh infections, with the active count standing at 3,402, accounting for 0.01 per cent of the overall tally.
