Centre asks states, UTs to screen 2 per cent passengers from each incoming flight through RT-PCR

With India consistently reporting more than 10000 Covid cases over the past few days the Centre Wednesday asked states and Union Territories to ensure a random RTPCR screening of about two per cent passengers in each incoming flight and send all positive specimens for genomic sequencingUnion Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan issued the advisory through a letter to states and UTs referring to the Operational Guidelines for Revised Surveillance Strategy in context of Covid19 issued by the Centre on June 9Bhushan asked them to implement the revised strategy which focuses on early detection and timely management of suspected and confirmed cases and the containment of outbreaks of new coronavirus variantsBhushan said the June 9 strategy was issued with the longterm vision to fully integrate Covid19 surveillance within existing Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme IDSP mechanismSummarising the actions that states need to take Bhushan said they should ensure Surveillance of Incoming International Travelers which will include random screening of 2 per cent of passengers in each incoming flight into India by RTPCRAlso Read 9 per cent of Mumbais Covid19 cases in past 24 days reported among childrenHe asked them that all positive specimens should be sent for genome sequencing and such passengers should be advised isolation and clinically managers as per prevailing guidelinesHe also said all healthcare facilities should report Influenza Like Illness ILI cases and mentioned that the District Surveillance Officer DSO will be responsible to analyse the dataFive per cent of ILI cases shall be tested through RTPCR he saidHealth facilities should ensure monitoring of Severe Acute Respiratory Illness SARI cases in all district hospitals and selected tertiary hospitals and undertake their RTPCR test for Covid he saidState IDSP shall share this data on a fortnightly basis and the lab testing for Covid19 should upload their data on Indian Council for Medical Research portal he saidThe revised strategy further stressed on communitybased surveillance for early detection of unusual events in the community such as large outbreaks unusual clinical presentation of cases mortality etcBhushan said the threepronged genomic surveillance strategy should be implemented by states and UTs Also positive samples from large clusters or outbreaks in the community and unusual events should also be sent for whole genome sequencingIn addition revised surveillance guidelines also call for sewage and wastewater surveillance which may provide early warnings on the potential local surge of Covid19 the letter saidPlease ensure that the guidelines are disseminated to all districts and identified health facilities and labs across the state and their implementation shall be ensuredI am sure the state governments and UT administrations shall make these guidelines to enable us to retain and build on the gains made so far in this fight against Covid19 the letter saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever