Centre Reviews Covid-19 Situation, Asks States To Keep Eye On New Variants Like Pirola, Eris

New Delhi: The Centre on Monday reviewed the Covid-19 situation in the country and asked all states to maintain a close watch on the new global variants. PK Mishra, the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, chaired a high-level meeting with NITI Aayog member Vinod Paul, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, and other top officials, and called for ramping up the whole genome sequencing.

In the meeting that was also attended by PMO Advisor Amit Khare, and DG ICMR Rajiv Bahl, an overview of the global Covid-19 situation was given by Secretary (Health) including certain newer variants of coronavirus like BA.2.86 (Pirola) and EG.5 (Eris), which have been reported globally. He underlined that as per World Health Organization (WHO), while Eris has been reported from over 50 countries, the Pirola variant is in four countries.

Nearly 3 lakh new Covid-19 cases reported globally in past 7 days

In the meeting, it was highlighted that while globally a total of 2,96,219 new cases of Covid-19 were reported in the past 7 days, India which contributes to nearly 17% of the global population, has reported only 223 cases (0.075% of global new cases) in the past week.

In India, the daily average of new coronavirus infections continues to be below 50. The country has also managed to maintain a weekly test positivity rate of less than 0.2%.

An overview of the genome sequencing of different variants circulating in India was also provided.

After detailed deliberations, PK Mishra highlighted that while the Covid-19 situation in the country remains stable and public health systems in the country remain geared up, there is a need for states to monitor trends of influenza-like illness and severe acute respiratory infection cases. He also asked them to send sufficient samples for testing of Covid-19 while ramping up whole genome sequencing.

1,475 active coronavirus cases in India

As of Monday, India has 1,475 active coronavirus cases. The maximum number of active cases is in Kerala (1,010), followed by West Bengal (182) and Maharashtra (116).

Since the outbreak of Covid-19 in India in 2020, more than 4.44 crore people have recovered, while 5,31,926 people have succumbed to the virus.