With Kerala reporting India's first case of monkeypox in Kollam, the Union Health Ministry on Thursday decided to deploy a multi-disciplinary Central team to support the Pinarayi Vijayan Government in probing the outbreak and instituting requisite health measures.
“He is a traveller from UAE. He reached the state on July 12. He reached Trivandrum airport and all the steps are being taken as per the guidelines issued by WHO and ICMR,” Kerala Health Minister Veena George said about the 35-year-old patient..
The monkeypox case comes even as India, after a gap of 145 days, recorded over 20,000 new coronavirus infections while the active cases increased to 1,36,076.
The huge surge comes on the eve of the 75-day long free precaution Covid jab drive to be launched from July 15. The Centre has directed the states/UTs to screen and test suspected cases at entry points and in communities. The health ministry's requirements include patient isolation, rigorous risk communication addressed at health personnel, and appropriate human resource and logistical assistance.
In a letter to the States, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan emphasised the need of having a strict monitoring system in place at all ports of entry in order to swiftly detect and isolate suspicious cases.
The Health Secretary directed all states and union territories to take critical activities, such as orienting and re-orienting all key stakeholders, such as health screening teams at points of entry, disease surveillance teams, and clinicians working in hospitals, regarding common signs and symptoms.
A total of 20,139 new Covid-19 cases were reported in a span of 24 hours, pushing the total tally of cases to 4,36,89,989. The death toll climbed to 5,25,557 with 38 new fatalities, the data said even as the Centre warned the States to be aware of the monkey cases which are on rise in a few pockets of the world.
The Covid active cases comprise 0.31 per cent of the total infections, while the national recovery rate was recorded at 98.49 per cent, the Ministry said in a statement.
In the meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) also warned all country governments and healthcare systems to take steps to curb the spread of infection as the number of new cases worldwide had risen by 30% in the last two weeks.
“I am concerned that cases of Covid-19 continue to rise - putting further pressure on stretched health systems and health workers. I am also concerned about the increasing trend of deaths," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently.
The WHO Chief warning follows an alert issued by the Union Health Ministry to the states, and UTs about the spread of the monkeypox illness, which, it said, has caused concern throughout the world in recent weeks with 3,413 laboratory cases and one confirmed fatality.