New Delhi: The Central government has advised the states and Union Territories to continue focusing on the five-fold strategy to prevent the Covid-19 surge in the country.
The Centre’s advisory comes amid concerns about a possible fourth Covid wave hitting India in the days to come.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan emphasized that there should be a continued focus on the five-fold strategy, i.e., Test-Track-Treat-Vaccination and adherence to COVID Appropriate Behavior, ANI reported.
“States should also ensure that adequate number of samples are submitted to INSACOG network through Sentinel sites as per the protocol issued by the 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,” Bhushan said in his letter to the Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and Secretaries (Health) of all the states and UTs.
“Effective surveillance by monitoring of emerging clusters of new cases, if any, testing as per norms and monitoring of ILI & SARI cases shall be taken up on a continued basis to ensure that no early warning signals are missed and spread of infection can be controlled,” he added.
The Union Health Secretary said it is also vital that states may ensure that all eligible persons are motivated to get vaccinated against Covid-19 as per the recent expansion of vaccination drive to young adults and precautionary doses for adults besides the completion of doses for all adults.
“The State machinery should create required awareness and ensure adhere to COVID Appropriate Behavior, i.e., wearing of face masks, maintaining physical distancing in all public areas/gatherings and practice of effective hand & respiratory hygiene,” he added.
The Centre’s advisory comes in the wake of the World Health Organization (WHO) warning all countries to remain vigilant against the virus.
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