New Delhi, 18 October 2022
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya called on officials to continue to focus on surveillance across the country against COVID-19 following the emergence of Omicron variants and the resulting sharp accumulation in cases in other countries.
By chairing a high-level assembly here to review the COVID-19 scenario in the country, under pressure it wants to adopt good enough testing (with a higher proportion of RTPCR) and effective surveillance to assess and spread the infection in a timely manner. way.
In particular, it called for surveillance through sentinel sites, adding surveillance of severe acute respiratory infections (AIRS) and influenza-like illness (ILI) and whole genome sequencing (WGS) to detect any mutation imaginable after the identity of Omicron. variants in other countries.
He also suggested officials keep a close eye on hospitalizations due to COVID19. He suggested increasing the speed of vaccination, adding the precautionary dose to eligible beneficiaries.
The Minister, under pressure, wants to adopt good enough tests (with a higher proportion of RTPCR) and effective surveillance of Covid-19 to assess and spread the infection in a timely manner.
Mandaviya wants to monitor access points. He also highlighted the need for network awareness for the continued implementation of Covid-Responsive Behavior (CAB), especially as festival season approaches.
The assembly was attended by Dr. Ajay Kumar Sood, Senior Scientific Advisor to the Government, S Aparna, Secretary (Pharmaceuticals) and Dr. Rajiv Bahl, DG, ICMR, and other experts and public health officials.
Dr. V. K. Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog also provided at the meeting.
Lav Agarwal, Additional Secretary (AS), MoHFW, gave a detailed presentation on the global scenario of a backlog of COVID cases, basically in Europe, and an investigation of the other variants of Omicron around the world. The presentation included a detailed investigation of the COVID19 scenario in the country with the trend of Covid-19 cases; instances reported, active instances, positive instances and control status, as well as weekly controls according to state according to million, adding the corresponding percentage of RT-PCR in the controls as performed.
Manohar Agnani, AS, MoHFW, made a presentation on the existing immunization in the country, the availability of vaccines, state-by-state research of vaccine management and highlighted the slow management of the precautionary dose in the country.
NNN