Amid rising cases of coronavirus, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya held a review meeting and advised states to stay alert and be prepared for COVID-19 management. In the meeting with state health ministers and principal and additional chief secretaries held virtually, Mandaviya stressed on identifying emergency hotspots by monitoring trends of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) cases, ramping up testing and vaccination and ensuring readiness of hospital infrastructure.
He also urged the state health ministers to conduct mock drills of all hospital infrastructure on April 10 and 11 and review the health preparedness with district administrations and health officials on April 8 and 9. States and Union territories were further informed that currently WHO is closely tracking one variant of interest (VOI), XBB.1.5 and six other variants are under monitoring (BQ.1, BA.2.75, CH.1.1, XBB, XBF and XBB.1.16), a health ministry statement said.
It was highlighted that while Omicron and its sub-lineages continue to be the predominant variant, most of the assigned variants have little or no significant transmissibility, disease severity or immune escape. The prevalence of XBB.1.16 increased from 21.6 per cent in February to 35.8 per cent in March, 2023. However, no evidence of an increase in hospitalisation or mortality has been reported, the statement said.
Mandaviya said irrespective of the new variants, the five-fold strategy of Test-Track-Treat-Vaccinate and adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour continue to remain the tested strategy for Covid management. This would facilitate undertaking of appropriate public health measures, he said.
It was also observed that eight states are reporting high number of Covid cases in India with 10 or more districts reporting more than 10 per cent positivity in Kerala, Maharashtra and Delhi and over 5 districts reporting more than 5 per cent positivity in Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Haryana.