"Don't Let Guard Down": Centre To States Amid Covid Surge In Asia, Europe
NDTV
The state should create required awareness and ensure adherence to COVID Appropriate Behavior, the centre said.
Amid a resurgence of Covid cases across Southeast Asia and Europe, the government on Thursday warned states not to let their guard down and advised them to continue focus on the five-fold strategy of "test, track, treat, follow Covid-appropriate behaviour and vaccinate" while resuming economic and social activities in their jurisdiction.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, in his letter to all states and union territories, also asked them to ensure adequate testing of samples to ensure timely detection of new variants and also to motivate people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
"States should also ensure that adequate number of samples are submitted to INSACOG network through Sentinel sites as per the protocol issued by National Centre 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 ICMR. Effective surveillance by monitoring of emerging clusters of new cases, if any, testing as per norms and monitoring of ILI and SARI cases shall be taken up on a continued basis to ensure no early warning signals are missed and spread of infection can be controlled," Mr Bhushan said in the letter.
The state should create required awareness and ensure adherence to COVID Appropriate Behavior, like wearing of face masks, maintaining physical distancing in all public areas/gatherings and practice of effective hand & respiratory hygiene, it said.
