‘States, Centre need to collaborative spirit to prevent Covid surge’

Taking note of the rising cases of Covid globally, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday said that the Centre and States need to work in “tandem” and in a “collaborative spirit” as was done during the previous surges. Mandaviya, while chairing a virtual meeting with the health ministers of the states, Principal Secretaries, Additional Chief Secretaries and Information Commissioners, said that the country needs to be on the alert and be fully prepared for Covid management. The meeting was held in view of the recent upsurge in cases in some countries like China, Japan, Brazil and the United States in the presence of Union Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar, NITI Aayog member V K Paul to review the public health preparedness for containment and management of Covid and progress of national Covid vaccination campaign. Referring to PM Modi’s message from the high-level review meeting held yesterday, Mandaviya asked to be on the alert and keep all preparedness for Covid management. According to an official statement, states were requested to continue with a pre-emptive and proactive approach. “Strengthen the surveillance system for whole genome sequencing of positive case samples to track the variants through the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) network to ensure timely detection of newer variants, if any, circulating in the country. Focus is to be given to health facility-based sentinel surveillance; pan-respiratory virus surveillance; community-based surveillance; and sewage/wastewater surveillance,” the minister stated in the meeting. He also emphasized the “need to collectively reinvigorate the system and remove any sense of complacency and fatigue”.