Amid fears that a string of upcoming festivals like Diwali and Dussehra, which are round the corner, might push Covid-19 cases, the Government on Tuesday warned States and Union Territories to ensure there’s no let-up in the surveillance strategy to track new variants.
The cautionary statement also comes in the backdrop of Covid-19 cases in Kerala rising by more than 50 per cent in the week ending Sunday following the Onam celebrations in the state.
Dr N.K. Arora, chairman of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) also urged people to take their booster doses, and advised hospitals to ensure adequate health infrastructure such as essential medicines and oxygen supply. This year Durga Puja is followed by Dussehra and Diwali starts next month.
“Even though covid cases are declining, the surveillance activities in the states/UTs should be strongly conducted because we have festival season after a few days. There should be no laxity to detect any new variant. This is a very crucial time," said Arora.
“Government is also working on strengthening healthcare infrastructure such as ICU, beds, and adequate supply of oxygen. Besides this, one has to continue covid-19 appropriate behavior like wearing face masks etc," he said.
Rising Covid-19 cases in Kerala by more than 50 per cent in the week ending Sunday following the Onam celebrations in the state can be linked to the overall rise of caseload in India and broken trend of declining cases that the state held for the past few weeks.
Kerala reported 14,865 new cases of the virus during the week (September 12-18), up from 9,805 in the previous seven days. The state accounted for close to 39% of all cases detected in the country in the week.
In the last two years, India’s reported covid-19 cases have crossed 45 million with 528,355 deaths reported so far. The country reported 4,858 cases in the last 24 hours.
Experts said that Omicron and its sub variants and lineages continue to be the dominant variant in India.
At present, the BA.2.75 subvariant is circulating in India, Chile, UK, Singapore, Spain and Germany.