COVID-19 cases in China: Health Ministry asks states to follow five-fold strategy

Union Health Ministry on Friday urged states and union territories (UTs) to ensure adherence to the five-fold strategy of ‘test-track-treat-vaccinate and COVID-19 behaviour’. This comes despite India reporting less than 3,000 COVID-19 positive cases in the last 24 hours.

In a letter to state secretaries, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that all states and UTs must observe precautions in light of the resurgence of COVID-19 across Southeast Asia and Europe.

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“With a resurgence observed in COVID-19 cases across Southeast Asia and some countries of Europe, a High-Level meeting was chaired by honourable Health and Family Welfare Minister on 16th March 2022, wherein it was advised that states/ UTs should focus on aggressive and sustained genome sequencing and intensified surveillance,” Bhushan.

The Union Health Secretary also assured states governments and UTs of a continued support from the Centre in the fight against COVID-19.

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Bhushan’s fresh directives could be viewed on the backdrop of new COVID-19 cases in various parts of the world including China, where it originated from.

On Thursday, China reported as many as 2,388 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, higher than Wednesday’s 1,226 cases.

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On Friday, India reported 2,528 fresh COVID-19 cases, 3,997 recoveries, and 149 deaths in 24 hours. With this, the number of active COVID-19 cases in the country stands at 29,181.

The daily positivity rate stands at 0.40 per cent. 4,24,58,543 people have recovered so far from COVID-19, while the death toll in the country stands at 5,16,281.

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According to the latest figures shared by the Union Health Ministry, 1,80,97,94,58 people have been vaccinated so far.