Covid-19 News LIVE Updates: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday chaired a high-level meeting to review the situation related to Covid-19 in the country and the preparedness of health infrastructure and logistics, the status of the vaccination campaign in the country and the emergence of new Covid-19 variants. The meeting comes a day after Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya reviewed the coronavirus situation and asked people to follow Covid-appropriate behavior, including wearing masks in crowded places and getting vaccinated.
PM Modi cautioned against complacency and advised strict vigil and reiterated that “Covid is not over yet” and directed officials to strengthen the ongoing surveillance measures, especially at the international airports.
He stressed the need to ensure that the entire Covid infrastructure at all levels is maintained at a high level of preparedness in terms of equipment, processes, and human resources. According to an official statement issued by the PMO, he advised states to audit Covid specific facilities to ensure operational readiness of hospital infrastructure, including oxygen cylinders, PSA plants, ventilators and human resources.
PM Modi also directed officials to ramp up testing and also genomic sequencing efforts. He urged everyone to follow Covid appropriate behaviour at all times, especially in view of the upcoming festive season, including wearing masks in crowded public places. Prime Minister also urged that that precaution dose may be encouraged especially for vulnerable and elderly groups.
According to official sources, random sample testing will be done at airports for international passengers arriving from China and other countries in view of the surge in cases.
Mandaviya on Thursday told Lok Sabha that in the wake of Christmas and new year celebrations, states are advised to ensure that people wear masks, use sanitizers and maintain social distancing along with increasing awareness for precautionary doses.
Dr Anil Goyal of Indian Medical Association said that there won’t be a lockdown situation in India since 95 per cent of the people are vaccinated. “The immunity system of Indians is stronger than that of the Chinese. India needs to go back to Covid basics — testing, treating, tracing,” he added.
Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has called an emergency meeting today, while his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan has advised residents not to ignore fever, cold and sore throat, and not to be in close contact with people who have symptoms of Covid-19.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will also hold a meeting today to review the preparedness in the financial capital. Mumbai airport has decided to screen all international passengers.
The Uttarakhand government is preparing to issue a fresh standard operating procedure on Covid-19 based on the Centre’s guidelines, while Gujarat Health Minister Rushikesh Patel on Wednesday asked officials to conduct “compulsory” testing of travellers arriving in the state from other countries. Maharashtra government has announced the formation of a task force or a special committee to monitor the changing virus situation in the state.
Meanwhile, the Serum Institute of India (SII) has sought the drug regulator’s approval for market authorisation of its Covid-19 vaccine Covovax as a booster dose for those aged 18 years and above who have been administered two doses of Covishield or Covaxin, official sources said on Thursday. Prakash Kumar Singh, director, government and regulatory affairs, SII, submitted a market authorisation application for the heterologous booster dose of Covovax to the drugs controller general of India (DCGI) on October 17. It has been learnt that the DCGI’s office had raised a few queries, after which Singh submitted a reply, mentioning about the current emerging situation caused by a new coronavirus variant. Covovax was approved by the DCGI for a restricted emergency use in children aged seven to 11 years in June.
The Union health ministry is examining the reintroduction of mandatory ‘air suvidha’ forms with details of RT-PCR test conducted 72 hours prior to travel or complete vaccination proof for passengers coming from China and other countries reporting high number of Covid cases. A decision on this will be taken after monitoring the situation for a few weeks.
This time BF.7, a sub-lineage of the Omicron variant BA.5, is behind the surge in China. According to news agency PTI, BF.7 has the strongest infection ability since it is highly transmissible, has a shorter incubation period, and has a higher capacity to cause reinfection or infect even those vaccinated.
In India, two cases of BF.7 variant have been detected in Gujarat so far, and two in Odisha. It has also been detected in several other countries, including the US and UK and European nations such as Belgium, Germany, France and Denmark.
In an exclusive interview with News18, Dr Randeep Guleria, Ex-AIIMS Director, said that Covid is not over. “People need to get themselves tested. Need aggressive surveillance. Currently vaccines are protecting our population from severe illness. People should get booster dose,” he added.
The Union government has also asked states to send samples to labs for genome sequencing, which can help identify the variant or sub-variant.
In 2019, Kerala confirmed India’s first case of novel coronavirus in Thrissur district. The patient was a student studying in China’s Wuhan University, who had returned to India. The virus soon spread to the entire country, with the second wave of the Covid pandemic wreaking havoc across India as the death toll increased exponentially and spike in infections burdened the healthcare infrastructure in the country.
(with inputs from PTI)
