Centre asks states to increase testing, vaccination amid recent Covid surge

Reviews Covid-19 situation in nine states where test positivity rates have been rising

The Centre has flagged concerns on low testing and vaccination in nine states that are witnessing a surge in Covid-19 cases and test positivity rates.

On Wednesday, Union Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan chaired a high-level review meeting with these states: Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.

Vinod Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog said, “We need to be mindful that Covid has not gone. Looking at the global scenario, we need to be on high alert. There is poor surveillance, poor testing and below average vaccination in many states undergoing the present surge.” He urged states to improve the testing in areas with high positivity, increase surveillance as per the revised surveillance strategy and speed up Covid-19 vaccination.

Bhushan said that all districts reporting higher positivity rate need to undertake adequate testing with a higher proportion of RT PCR tests. “Any laxity will result in deterioration of the situation in these districts,” the Union Health Ministry said, adding that there is need to effectively and strictly monitor home isolation cases so that they are not intermingling and circulating in their neighborhoods, and spreading the infection.

States were advised to conduct surveillance as per revised surveillance strategy issued on June 9, 2022. They were further directed to report district-wise SARI (Severe Acute Respiratory Illness) and ILI (Influenza-like Illness) cases on a daily basis and also to send these for genome sequencing to mapped INSACOG labs. Testing of international arrivals with genome sequencing to continue.

Concerned about low levels of testing, the Centre has now asked states to create awareness regarding reporting of those who opt for home-test kits through Rapid Antigen-test kit.

Besides, states were asked to step up their drives on free Covid-19 vaccination for first, second as well as precaution doses.

Randeep Guleria, Director, AIIMS, New Delhi advised states to be attentive to clinical symptoms of Covid-19 patients and not wait till their genome sequencing is done to identify whether a cluster is emerging in any state. States need to be attentive to the changing pattern of clinical manifestation of hospitalised patients, he stated.

It was pointed out that the average tests per million population is below the national average in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh, while the share of RT-PCR tests is very low in the states of Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam and below the national average in the states of Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and West Bengal.

The health ministry has asked these states to urgently address the declining trend of RT-PCR tests and improve their average daily tests per million.

It was noted that there remains substantial scope in increasing the pace of vaccination in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Assam, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. States were also exhorted to ensure strict surveillance in all the districts of concern that are showing a positivity rate of over 10 percent in the last week.