Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya stressed on the need to focus on districts reporting high case positivity and undertake adequate testing (with higher proportion of RT-PCR) and effective COVID-19 surveillance to assess and control the spread of infection in a timely manner.

Dr. Mandaviya directed officials to continue to focus on surveillance and on Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) to scan for any possible mutation and also directed for monitoring hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and SARI/ILI cases.

Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, MoHFW made a detailed presentation on the global scenario of surge in COVID cases and status of COVID-19 in the country.

This included presentation and analysis of the trend of COVID-19 cases; daily and active cases; positivity and deaths; testing status along with state-wise weekly tests per million; RT-PCR share in weekly tests; genome sequencing; and vaccination status.

He urged an increase in the pace of vaccination including booster doses in districts reporting high cases.

“As there are adequate vaccine doses available, let there be no vaccine wastage while focusing on accelerating vaccination among the eligible and vulnerable groups,” added Mandaviya.  

The meeting was attended by Dr. Ajay K. Sood, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government, Dr. Rajesh Gokhale, Secretary, DBT; Dr. Balram Bhargava, DG, ICMR; Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, AYUSH; Dr. Manohar Agnani, AS & MD; Dr. Randeep Guleria, Director, AIIMS; Dr. N. K. Arora, Head of COVID Task Group, NTAGI; Dr. Sujeet Singh, Director, NCDC; and other senior officials of Ministry of Health were present in the meeting.