Uptick in respiratory illness cases: Union Health Minister to hold review meeting on Dec 20

NEW DELHI, Dec 19
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on December 20 will review the preparedness of health facilities and services in view of an upsurge in respiratory illness cases, including those of Covid, in some states, official sources said on Monday.
He will hold the review meeting virtually with health ministers and additional chief principal secretaries (health) of all states and union territories (UTs) and officials of central ministries and departments concerned, they said. The government on Monday asked states and UTs to maintain constant vigil amid the uptick of respiratory illness cases and the detection of the first case of the new JN.1 variant of the coronavirus in the country.
India’s first JN.1 case was detected in a sample taken from a 79-year-old woman in Kerala with mild symptoms on December 8. Earlier, a traveller from Tamil Nadu’s Tiruchirapalli district was detected with the JN.1 variant in Singapore.
The Union minister, the sources said, will review the response preparedness of health facilities and services in view of the recent upsurge in respiratory illnesses such as Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI), including Covid, in a few of the states.
He will also take stock of the status of availability of medical oxygen, hospital beds, ventilators, drugs, diagnostics and referral transport as well as that of ILI/SARI surveillance measures.
On Monday, in a letter to states and UTs, Union Health Secretary Sudhansh Pant underlined the critical Covid control and management strategies considering the upcoming festive season and advised states to put in place requisite public health measures and other arrangements to minimise the risk of increase in transmission of the disease by adherence to maintenance of respiratory hygiene.
States have been asked to ensure effective compliance of the detailed operational guidelines for revised surveillance strategy for Covid as has been shared by the Union Ministry of Health and Family.
They have been asked to monitor and report district-wise ILI and SARI cases in all health facilities on a regular basis, including in the Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) portal, for detecting the early rising trend of cases.
States were advised to ensure adequate testing in all districts as per Covid testing guidelines and maintain the recommended share of RT-PCR and antigen tests.
In the letter, Pant also stressed on increasing the number of RT-PCR tests and send positive samples for genome sequencing to Indian SARS COV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) laboratories so as to enable timely detection of new variants, if any, in the country.
According to health ministry data updated at 8 am on Monday, India saw a single day rise of 260 coronavirus infections, while the active cases increased to 1,828.
The death toll has increased to 5,33,317 with one death reported from Kerala.
In a span of 24 hours till Sunday 8 am, India saw a single day rise of 335 new coronavirus infections and had reported five new –four from Kerala and one from Uttar Pradesh.