On Southeast Asia Covid surge, Centre’s note to states: ‘Keep a vigil’

Amid a fresh surge in coronavirus cases in southeast Asia, the government has written to states to ensure an “agressive and sustained genome sequencing, intensified surveillance and (to) keep an overall vigil” on the Covid-19 situation. The five fold strategy of ‘Test-Track- Treat-Vaccination and adherence to Covid appropriate behaviour’ has yet again been reiterated by the government. India on Friday registered 2,528 new Covid cases – the fifth straight day when daily cases were below the 3,000-mark.

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A decreases in case has been “observed” in the country after “a rapid surge due to the Omicron variant”, the letter by Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan. In the month of January, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and other big cities had seen a big spike.

As the daily cases dropped, states were told to ease the Covid curbs in a letter dated February 25. “It is imperative that states and union territories must observe all precautions and not let the guard down while resuming the economic activity,” the central government has said in its latest communication.

“With a spike in Covid-19 cases across Southeast Asia and some countries of Europe, a high-level meeting was chaired by health minister Mansukh Mandaviya on March 16 where the states were advised to focus on aggressive genome sequencing, intensified surveillance and overall vigil on the Covid situation,” the statement read.

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To keep the pandemic under control, a fresh reminder has been sent over wearing of masks in public places, social distancing and other protocol.

Till now, India has recorded over 4.30 crore cases, 5,16,281 deaths, 4,24,58,543 recoveries and 29,181 active cases due to Covid-19. Even though the pandemic situation in the country is improving, there are fears that the Covid-19 spike in Southeast Asia and Europe might lead to another wave of infections.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), infections started surging globally last week. Many factors can be attributed to this surge including the highly infectious Omicron variant and its BA.2 sublineage and the lifting of public health and social measures by countries along with low vaccination rates.