NEW DELHI: As the Covid cases in the country grew by over 100% in India in five weeks, the Centre has expressed concerns over some states not sending samples for genetic sequencing of the virus as directed.
A total of nearly 39,726 fresh cases were registered on Friday, the highest since early December and the number of active cases in the country have crossed 2.71 lakh mark, registering a growth of 103% since February 11 when this number was just about 1.33 lakh.
Eight states in India are showing an upward trajectory leading to a massive surge in cases and statistics show that eight states continue to show an upward trajectory of cases and Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat, and Chhattisgarh together account for more than 80% of the daily new cases.
Maharashtra, which has continued to be the worst-hit state in the country all through the pandemic and is facing a steep second wave, reported the highest daily new cases at 25,833 or 65% of the daily cases. It is the highest Covid case reported by any state in India since the beginning of the pandemic.
Maharashtra was followed by Punjab with 2,369 cases while Kerala reported 1,899 new cases.
A worried Centre advised states to improve testing in districts reporting a reduction in testing and increase the overall share of RT-PCR tests -- more than 70% -- especially in districts dependent on high levels of antigen testings.
States have also been instructed to carry out an average close contact tracing of a minimum of 20 persons per positive case in the first 72 hours along with isolation and early treatment of the serious cases as per clinical protocol.
“It is also advised to focus on surveillance and stringent containment of those areas in selected districts which are seeing clusters of cases and focus on clinical management in districts reporting higher deaths,” said the health ministry.
It also asked states to follow up on sending samples for genome testing to track virus variants of concern. All states and UTs have been tagged to 10 national labs under the INSACOG consortium, formed for genomic sequencing of SARS CoV 2 with the National Center for Disease Control as the nodal institute.
This newspaper had earlier reported that institutes engaged in the project have alerted the government on the detection of a variant of Covid virus with a double mutation from clusters in Maharashtra.
Officials at the Centre meanwhile said that following the visits of high-level teams to various states facing the spike in cases, the reports of central teams have been shared with the states for further follow-up action.
The government, said a source, is engaged in the follow-up and compliance on part of states and districts on a daily basis.