Centre puts states on alert as Covid cases surge globally

ln view of the sudden spurt of Covid cases being witnessed in Japan, USA, Korea, Brazil and China, the central government on Tuesday urged all states and Union territories to gear up the whole genome sequencing of positive samples to keep track of emerging variants.
“It is essential to gear up whole genome sequencing of positive case samples to track variants through the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) network”, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has written to States and Union Territories.
“All states are requested to ensure that as far as possible samples of all positive cases, on a daily basis, are sent
to the designated INSACOG Genome Sequencing Laboratories (IGSLs) that are mapped to the States and UTs,” said Union Health Secretary.
Bhushan mentioned that India with its focus on five-fold strategy of test-track-treat-vaccination and adherence to Covid Appropriate Behavior has been able to restrict the transmission of Covid-19 virus and is having around twelve hundred cases on a weekly basis.
Bhushan in his letter to the states and Union territories also said that the the need of the moment is to keep an eye on the crucial trends of existing variants.
Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will hold a meeting with senior officials and experts on the Covid-19 situation in the country today. The meeting will start at 11:30. He will also review meetings on Covid 19 situations in other countries.
Globally speaking, China has reported 1,995 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday. As of Sunday, the National Health Commission had received reports of 380,453 confirmed cases and 5,237 deaths in 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps on the Chinese mainland, and in all 339,885 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital.
The United States has expressed its concern over the possibility of a new mutation of the Covid-19 virus as numbers continue to regularly increase in the world’s most populous nation China, even though many countries have arrested the pandaemic spread.