India extends Covid containment till Dec 31 |
India extended the nationwide COVID-19 containment measures till December 31 in view of the emergence of a highly mutant COVID-19 variant Omicron, and asked the states to be vigilant. Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla has asked states and UTs to strictly adhere to the November 25 advisory issued by the Union Health Ministry, recommending rigorous screening and testing of all international travellers. Contacts of the international travellers will be closely tracked and tested as per the health ministry guidelines, and the samples of travellers turning positive sent to the designated Genome Sequencing Laboratories promptly, as per the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) Guidance Document. State surveillance officers must also establish close coordination with their designated or tagged genome sequencing laboratories for expediting results of genomic analysis, and the States and UTs should immediately undertake necessary public health measures, in case of the presence of variants of concern. Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan also held a review meeting with states and UTs and advised them to ramp up testing for early identification and management of cases. In the last week of November, India logged 6,990 new coronavirus infections, the lowest in 551 days, and the total tally of COVID-19 cases is now 3,45,87,822. Active cases have declined to 1,00,543, the lowest in 546 days.
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