With current COVID cases estimated to be around 4,000 and with an average of 1,200 cases being reported across India, the Ministry of Health has gone on precaution mode.  This is also due to the sudden spurt of cases in China, United States, Japan, Korea and Brazil. Nearly 35 lakh cases of COVID are being reported on a daily basis across the globe, with China taking the biggest hit.

In a letter issued by the office of Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare under the Union Ministry of Health and family welfare, States and Union Territories have been asked to send daily sample of positive COVID cases to the designated INSACOG Genome Sequencing Laboratories (IGSLs) mapped to States and UTs.

The letter from Dept of Health and Family Welfare

The instructions are in the light of India's focus on five-fold strategy of Test-Track-treat-Vaccination and the June 2022 Operational Guidelines for Revised Surveillance Strategy in context of COVID-19 issued by the MoHFW. The guidelines call for early detection, isolation, testing and timely management of suspected and confirmed cases to detect and contain outbreaks of new SARS CoV-2 variants, and this makes monitoring the trends of existing variants more crucial.

Sending the samples of positive cases to the IGSLs will enable timely detection of newer variants, if any, circulating in the country and will facilitate undertaking of requisite public health measures in a timely manner, as per the letter from the MoHFW.

As per reports, China is experiencing massive surge in COVID +ve cases and hospitals and burial grounds are overwhelmed. Epidemiologists are estimating that 60% of China and 10% of the global population will likely be infected over the next 90 days, with millions expected to succumb to the virus.