India advances Covid surveillance following China’s growth

• Indian health ministry on high alert after Covid peak in China.
• Genomes of all positive cases nationwide to be sequenced.
• Extra to be extra careful over the Christmas and New Year holidays.

The health ministry of Andia is on high alert after a spike in Covid cases in neighbouring China.

States have been ordered by the federal government to ensure that the genomes of all positive cases nationwide are sequenced.

Additionally, it has urged state governments to do more to stop any potential spread over the Christmas and New Year holidays.

India saw two fatal Covid epidemics in 2020 and 2021, although infection rates were low this year.

Government statistics show that every week, the nation reports over 1,200 new cases of Covid. The Covid vaccination has already been given in over 2.2 billion doses.

The federal government requested on Tuesday that states transmit Covid samples from all patients who tested positive to the labs managed by INSACOG, a group under the health ministry that researches and keeps track of the various strains of Covid in India.

The action was taken in response to growing worries about the spread of Covid in China following the recent relaxation of stringent lockdown regulations.

China’s hospitals and healthcare facilities are under more and more pressure as patients who have tested positive at home seek treatment.

Federal health secretary Rajesh Bhushan wrote to all states saying that because to the “sudden increase of cases being witnessed in Japan, the United States of America, Republic of Korea, Brazil, and China,” it was critical to track novel variants using genome sequencing.

According to him, doing so would assist authorities in finding newer strains and taking action to contain them.

Mansukh Mandaviya, the health minister, met with top authorities on Wednesday to assess the situation and increase surveillance.

During the first two waves of Covid, one of the worst-affected nations was India. According to official statistics, millions were impacted, and more than 530,000 people passed away.

However, experts think that the actual number of Covid fatalities was likely far greater because in many cases, the victims were not examined or recorded in official statistics.

Since many people perished from a lack of oxygen and life-saving medications during the second wave in the summer of 2021, the government had also faced harsh criticism for its inadequate preparation.

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