Amid reports of new Covid variant, Centre hold high level review meeting

Amid the reports of detection of certain newer variants of Covid variants globally, Dr. P.K. Mishra, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, on Monday chaired a high-level meeting to review the global and national COVID-19 situation, newer variants in circulation and public health impact.

An overview of the global COVID-19 situation including certain newer variants of SARS-CoV-2 virus like BA.2.86 (Pirola) and EG.5 (Eris), which have been reported globally were discussed in the meeting.

After detailed deliberations, Dr. P. K. Mishra highlighted that while the COVID-19 situation in the country remains stable and public health systems in the country remain geared up, there is need for States to monitor trends of ILI/SARI cases, send sufficient samples for testing of Covid-19 while ramping up Whole Genome Sequencing and maintain close watch on the new global variants. 

It was highlighted in the meeting that while globally a total of 2,96,219 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the past 7 days, India which contributes to nearly 17% of global population, has reported only 223 cases (0.075% of global new cases) in the past week.  

The meeting was attended by Dr. Vinod Paul, Member, NITI Aayog, Rajiv Gauba, Cabinet Secretary, Amit Khare, Advisor PMO, Sudhansh Pant, Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Rajiv Bahl, Secretary DHR and DG ICMR, Rajesh S. Gokhale, Secretary, Biotechnology and Punya Salila Srivastava, Additional Secretary to PM.