In a review meeting held on April 7, Mandaviya had urged state health ministers to visit hospitals and oversee the mock drills. He had also advised them to review the preparedness with district administrations and health officials on April 8 and 9.
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Covid-19: Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya asks states to stay alert
In the meeting with state health ministers, and principal and additional chief secretaries held virtually, Mandaviya had stressed the need to identify emergency hotspots by monitoring trends of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) cases, ramping up testing and vaccination, and ensuring readiness of hospital infrastructure.
Besides enhancing genome sequencing and ramping up whole genome sequencing of positive samples, he had emphasised creating awareness about following Covid-appropriate behaviour.
During the meeting, states and Union territories were informed that currently the World Health Organisation (WHO) is closely tracking a variant of interest (VOI), XBB.1.5, and six other variants are under monitoring (BQ.1, BA.2.75, CH.1.1, XBB, XBF and XBB.1.16), a health ministry statement had said.
It was highlighted that while Omicron and its sub-lineages continue to be the predominant variants, most of the assigned variants have little or no significant transmissibility, disease severity or immune escape. The prevalence of XBB.1.16 increased from 21.6% in February to 35.8% in March. However, no evidence of an increase in hospitalisation or mortality has been reported, the statement said.
During the meeting, it was observed 23 states and UTs had number of tests per million below the national average.
