The Centre on Thursday wrote to all states and Union Territories asking for testing to be increased in areas reporting clusters of cases, citing an “upsurge” of Covid-19 cases in the past two weeks.
In an email, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan mentioned four states— Maharashtra, Kerala, Delhi and Karnataka— as regions reporting high number of cases in the past 24 hours, and asked them to maintain strict vigilance and take pre-emptive action in areas showing concerns.
The four states together reported 81% of the 7,240 new Covid-19 cases that were reported from across the country. On Thursday, India recorded 7,665new cases, according to HT’s tally of numbers released by states.
Government data show that in the week ending June 8, an average of 4,207 new cases were reported, as compared to 2,663 in the week ending June 1. There has also been an increase in the weekly positivity rate from 0.63% to 1.12% in the corresponding periods.
States have also been directed to monitor average daily testing per million as well as share of RT-PCR in total tests conducted as it would enable them to take timely pre-emptive action wherever required. As directed before, states will also have to screen influenza like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection cases in all health facilities on a regular basis to detect early warning signs.
“Genome sequencing of prescribed samples of international passengers as well as collection of samples from sentinel sites (identified health facilities) and local cluster of new Covid-19 cases is equally important,” wrote Bhushan.
“States must not lower their guard and continue working towards building on the progress made thus far to bring the pandemic situation under control,” said Bhushan.
Experts say there is no major worry yet because hospitalisations are not increasing; however, a close watch needs to be maintained.
“We need to watch out if the trend continues to increase. So far, there is no indication of increasing hospitalization and mortality. In the meantime, efforts to improve booster coverage should be enhanced,” said Giridhara R Babu, head of epidemiology, Indian Institute of Public Health, Bengaluru.
