The Health Ministry on Monday issued an advisory in the wake of the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in some States/UTs and detection of the first case of the new JN.1 variant. Highlighting the need for maintaining constant vigil over the COVID situation in the country, Union Health Secretary, Sudhansh Pant shot off a letter to States/UTs. The Secy underlined that “due to consistent and collaborative actions between Centre and State Governments, we have been able to sustain the trajectory at sustainable low rates. However, as the COVID-19 virus continues to circulate and its epidemiology behaviour gets settled with Indian weather conditions and circulation of other usual pathogens, it is important to keep the momentum going to effectively deal with the challenges in public health. The Ministry has mentioned about the critical COVID control and management strategies that need to be followed. Considering the upcoming festive season, States have been advised to put in place requisite public health measures and other arrangements to minimize risk of increase in transmission of the disease by adherence to maintenance of respiratory hygiene. States have been asked to monitor and report District-wise Influenza-like Illness (ILI) & Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) cases in all health facilities on a regular basis including in the Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) portal, for detecting the early rising trend of cases. Further, states were advised to ensure adequate testing in all the districts as per Covid-19 testing guidelines and maintain the recommended share of RT-PCR and Antigen tests. Apart from this, states were encouraged to increase number of RT-PCR tests and send positive samples for genome sequencing to Indian SARS COV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) laboratories so as to enable timely detection of new variants, if any, in the country.
Published: Odishatv Bureau
Last updated: 19 December 2023, 07:00 PM IST
The rising cases of daily Covid-19 infections across the country is said to be majorly driven by the JN.1 sub variant. As of now, the country has reportedly detected about 145 cases of JN.1 variant from eight states.
If one draws parallels between the patterns, is there any relation between the surge of Covid-19 infections and the month December? Several studies have pointed out that the cold and dry condition provides a habitat to the Covid-19 virus.
The fears of the Covid-19 pandemic have resurfaced across the country after several people in Kerala have been infected by the new JN.1 variant. India reported 335 fresh COVID19 cases and five deaths in the last 24 hours.
COVID has been surging in many parts of India prompting Centre for a readiness drive. In Odisha too, virus infections are on an upward trend with over 100 daily cases on Sunday. However, in most cases, patients are without symptoms and are under home isolation.
The rising cases of daily Covid-19 infections across the country is said to be majorly driven by the JN.1 sub variant. As of now, the country has reportedly detected about 145 cases of JN.1 variant from eight states.
If one draws parallels between the patterns, is there any relation between the surge of Covid-19 infections and the month December? Several studies have pointed out that the cold and dry condition provides a habitat to the Covid-19 virus.
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