Ramp up testing, govt tells states amid Covid surge

New Delhi, April 7

Amid a seven-fold rise in daily Covid cases over the past three weeks, the Centre on Friday advised the states and UTs to ramp up testing and gear up for mock drills in hospitals on April 10 and 11.

At a Covid review meet held by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya with his state counterparts, eight states were flagged for the surge. Kerala, Maharashtra and Delhi have 10 or more districts reporting more than 10 per cent positivity. Five districts each in Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Haryana are reporting more than 5 per cent positivity.

Overall, the country has been witnessing a steady increase in Covid cases with average daily cases rising to 4,188 in the week ending April 7 from 571 in the week ending March 17. The weekly positivity rate rose to 3.02% in the week ending April 7. “Nearly 88,500 daily average cases are being reported globally, with the top five countries, including the US, contributing 62.6 per cent of global cases in the last one week,” the meeting was informed.

“The minister urged states to identify emerging hotspots by monitoring trends of influenza-like illness and severe acute respiratory illness cases, sending sufficient samples for Covid testing, and ramping up genome sequencing of positive samples,” a government release said.

On the vaccination front, India has achieved over 90% coverage of primary vaccination (two doses), but only 27% precaution dose coverage, which is very low. “Vaccination of all eligible population must be ramped up,” Mandaviya said.