Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday said that the government has started random RT-PCR sampling among the passengers arriving at International airports in the country amid the recent surge of Coronavirus infection in various countries including China, Japan, South Korea, France, and the United States.

“We have also started the random RT-PCR sampling among passengers arriving at International airports in the country. We are committed to tackling the pandemic and are taking appropriate steps,” Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in his statement in the Lok Sabha while advising the States to make sure that people wear masks, use sanitizers and maintain social distancing even during the festive and the New Year season. He also encouraged the states to increase awareness towards precautionary doses against Coronavirus.

“We are keeping an eye on the global Covid situation and are taking steps accordingly. The States are advised to increase genome-sequencing to timely identify the new variant of Covid-19,” Mandaviya added.
He further said that the health department has been proactive in managing the Covid pandemic. The Centre has also provided financial assistance to States in the fight against the pandemic, he added.

“So far, 220 crore covid vaccine shots have been given,” the Health Minister mentioned.

Mandaviya then claimed that the number of Covid cases is depleting in India despite its surge across the world.
“From the last few days, Covid cases have been rising in the world but in India, the cases are depleting. We are seeing rising Covid cases and deaths due to it in China,” he said.

Notably, Mandaviya chaired a high-level meeting on Wednesday to review the COVID-19 situation in India and the preparedness of the public health system for surveillance, containment, and management of COVID-19. He urged people to follow COVID-appropriate behaviour and get vaccinated against the virus.
Emphasizing that COVID-19 is not over yet, he asked the officials to be fully geared up and strengthen surveillance.

Mandaviya has already directed the officials to be fully geared up and strengthen the surveillance system for whole genome sequencing of positive case samples to track the variants through the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) network to ensure the timely detection of newer variants, if any, circulating in the country.