Indian states urged to be vigilant about COVID-19 surge across Southeast Asia

India's federal government has asked states to intensify surveillance on the COVID-19 situation and keep an overall vigil in wake of the surge in cases across Southeast Asia and some European countries, officials said Friday.

"With the resurgence observed in COVID-19 cases across Southeast Asia and some countries of Europe, a high-level meeting was chaired by the finance minister on Wednesday wherein it was advised that states should focus on aggressive and sustained genome sequencing and intensified surveillance and keep an overall vigil on COVID-19 situation," said a letter issued by the federal health ministry to states.

The letter emphasized that there should be a continued focus on the five-fold strategy - test-track-treat-vaccination and adherence to COVID-19 appropriate behavior.

India's health ministry said Friday morning that 2,528 new COVID-19 cases and 149 related deaths have been reported during the past 24 hours.

The ministry also asked states to ensure that an adequate number of samples are submitted to Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG) network through sentinel sites as per the protocol issued by the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC), which is the nodal agency for INSACOG, to ensure timely detection of new variants while maintaining adequate testing as per the protocols for testing laid by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

"Effective surveillance by monitoring of emerging clusters of new cases, if any, testing as per norms and monitoring of influenza-like illness and severe acute respiratory infections cases shall be taken up on a continued basis to ensure that no early warning signals are missed and spread of infection can be controlled," the letter said.

The ministry also pointed out that it is vital for states to encourage eligible beneficiaries to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and create required awareness to ensure adherence to COVID-19 appropriate behavior, that is, wearing of face masks, maintaining physical distancing in all public areas/gatherings and practice of effective hand and respiratory hygiene.

On March 16, the COVID-19 vaccination drive in India was expanded to include children in the age group of 12-14 years. ■