The Centre has advised caution and continuous alertness to states reporting a surge in COVID cases during the past few weeks, and to step up vigil against COVID. Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan reviewed the status of the COVID situation through a video conference with 14 such states that are reporting a high number of cases on a week-to-week basis along with increased case positivity combined with low numbers of COVID tests and below-average COVID vaccination.
Member (Health) of NITI Aayog Dr. Vinod Paul was also present at the review meeting. Dr. Paul advised states that have been reporting a spike in COVID cases to be watchful of the emerging pandemic situation.
He stressed that the major action point is to focus on strengthening proactive surveillance as per the Revised Surveillance Strategy issued by the Union Health Ministry on the 9th of June. He said, routine surveillance constitutes the steel frame of COVID response and management strategy and needs continuous and unstinted attention.
The four-fold strategy highlights surveillance of incoming international travelers, community-based surveillance, sentinel site surveillance and whole-genome sequencing. States were advised to scan for and report all SARI and ILI cases from all district hospitals, major private hospitals and medical colleges across the districts and keep a close watch on those geographies where these clusters are emerging. Dr. Paul and the Union Health Secretary both highlighted the low level of COVID testing across the states and the drop in RT-PCR share.
States were also strongly advised to strictly monitor the profile of admitted COVID patients and report the clinical manifestation to Health Ministry. Noting that the uptake in second and precaution doses in many states reporting the present surge was low, they were advised to rapidly accelerate the vaccination coverage, especially of the above 60 years elderly population and second dose among the 12 to 17 population group.
