New Delhi, Dec 21 (AIR News): Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday chaired a high-level meeting to review the COVID-19 situation in the country and the preparedness of the public health system for surveillance, containment, and management. 

The meeting was held in view of the recent spike in cases of COVID-19 in China, Japan, South Korea, France, and the United States.

Underlining the challenges posed by the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in some countries, Dr. Mandaviya noted the importance of being prepared and remaining alert against new and emerging strains of COVID-19, especially in view of the upcoming festive season. 

The Health Minister directed the officials to be fully geared up and strengthen surveillance. He also urged people to follow COVID Appropriate Behaviour and get vaccinated against COVID. He added, the Government is prepared to manage any situation.

During the meeting, Dr. Mandaviya also asked the official to strengthen the surveillance system for whole genome sequencing of positive case samples to track the variants to ensure timely detection of newer variants, if any, circulating in the country. He added that this would facilitate the undertaking of appropriate public health measures.

States and Union Territories have also been requested to send samples of all COVID-19-positive cases to Genome Sequencing Laboratories on a daily basis, for sequencing, to track new variants, if any.

Dr. Mandaviya also directed officials for ensuring the effective implementation of the operational Guidelines for Revised Surveillance Strategy in the context of COVID-19” issued in June 2022.

During the presentation, it was told that India has been witnessing a steady decline in cases with average daily cases falling to 158 in the week ending the 19th of this month. 

A consistent rise in global daily average cases, however,  has been reported in the last six weeks, with 5.9 lakh daily average cases reported in the week ending the 19th of December, 2022. It was briefed that a new and highly transmissible BF.7 strain of the Omicron variant has been found to be behind a wider surge of COVID infections in China.