COVID-19 guidelines: Amid the surge of coronavirus cases in China, the Government of India has outlined several fresh guidelines, including the random sampling of international passengers for Covid-19 at airports from today, December 21.
According to Health Secretary Yashpal Garg, the Central government has already issued instructions to keep track of covid cases and related trends. "We will increase testing from 100 to 600 per day. We are taking precautions, I appeal to people to get vaccinated soon," he added.
According to reports, there are currently 10 different variants of covid-19 in the country, of which the latest is Omicron subvariant BF.7. So far, at least four cases of this variant have been found in the country.
Union Health Minister chairs Covid review meeting
In the Covid review meeting chaired by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday, experts said although there is no overall increase in Covid caseload as of now, there is a need for continued surveillance to keep a track of existing and emerging variants.
The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday urged all states and Union territories to ramp up the whole genome sequencing of positive samples of Covid to keep track of emerging variants.
"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 Ministry.
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