New Delhi: India’s federal government asked states to identify emergency hotspots and ramp up testing for COVID-19, after the country recorded its highest daily case count since September, a Reuters tally showed on Friday.
Mandaviya said that seven states are reporting high number of COVID-19 cases in India with rising test positivity rate which are: Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Haryana.
"Wearing face masks in public places is mandatory in Puducherry," District Collector E.Vallavan said.
On the other hand, Puducherry Chief Minister Natesan Krishnasamy Rangasamy, while taking part in the COVID-19 review meeting held by Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday, said the spread of of the disease in Puducherry is under control.
"The spread of corona in Puducherry is under control and the government has taken appropriate measures to prevent its spread," he said in the Puducherry Legislative Assembly while attending the COVID-19 review meeting through video conferencing.
At the meeting with the health ministers of different states and Union Territories, Mandaviya stressed on the importance of enhancing public awareness campaigns regarding adherence to COVID appropriate behaviour.
The state health ministers were advised to personally monitor and review the preparedness of all logistics and infrastructure, including availability of sufficient designated hospital beds, besides ensuring that there is adequate stock of essential medicines.
The states were also asked to regularly update their COVID data on the designated Portal. The meeting also discussed the global COVID situation, along with the domestic scenario.
March 25 advisory
Mandaviya said that irrespective of the new variants, the five-fold strategy of “Test-Track-Treat-Vaccinate & Adherence to COVID Appropriate Behaviour” continues to remain the tested strategy.
The states/UTs were reminded of the joint advisory issued by the Union Health Ministry and ICMR on March 25, which called for a reinvigorated public health response to contain the surge of seasonal influenza and Covid cases through early detection, isolation, testing and timely management of suspected and confirmed cases to detect and contain outbreaks of new SARS-CoV-2 variants.
Mandaviya requested the states/UTs to ensure effective implementation of the same.
There were 6,050 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the federal health ministry said on Friday, continuing a sharp upward trend since a lull last year.
At the meeting to review the degree to which the states are prepared, Mandaviya asked them to ramp up genome testing and conduct mock drills in hospitals, a government statement said.
Daily new cases have nearly tripled from around 2,000 at the end of March.
The prevalence of XBB.1.16, classified as a variant of interest by the World Health Organisation, increased from 21.6% in February to 35.8% in March, the health ministry said, adding there that was no evidence of an increase in hospitalisations or deaths.
Active cases totalled more than 28,300 with 14 deaths during the last 24 hours, taking the country’s official death toll from the disease to 530,943.
India has recorded more than 44.7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic three years ago, the third-highest tally after the United States and China.
