Mansukh Mandaviya, sounds COVID alert for India, as cases increase globally

A High-Level meeting was chaired by the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday on the rising number of Covid cases in China and other countries as per a India Today report. The Union Health Minister has directed officials for strict compliance in three aspects: High level of alertness on the case rise, intensified surveillance of infection and aggressive genome sequencing. The meeting was attended by top doctors, the Health secretary, Department of Biotechnology (DBT) Secretary, NCDC Chief and Drug Controller General of India.

Countries including China, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea have recently reported a spike in coronavirus infections. While China’s Covid outbreak appears to be slowing down this week, South Korea’s daily new Covid-19 infections reached a record 621,328.While Delta and Omicron continued to dominate the Asian wave of Covid-19, a new concerning variant – BA.2 – is setting the stage for a revival of pandemic risks in Europe. Considered an even faster transmissible strain than the Omicron variant, the virus has rapidly spread in Germany and Austria. Italy is also showing signs of rising infections with about 120,000 school kids, some 2.5% of the total, in quarantine during the week that ended March 5 – the latest government data showed. In the southern town of Cerchiara di Calabria, the mayor has closed all schools again this week due to increasing cases.India has just started reviving itself from the Omicron-led third wave of the pandemic. The Centre recently announced plans to resume international flights from March 27 after a gap of two years.