The central government on Monday issued an advisory to states and Union Territories in view of the recent upsurge in COVID-19 cases and detection of first case of JN.1 variant in the country.

The government has asked the states and UTs to maintain a constant vigil on the situation besides ensuring adequate testing including higher number of RT-PCR tests, and send positive samples for genome sequencing to Indian SARS COV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) laboratories.

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In a letter issued to the States and UTS by the Union Health Secretary Sudhansh Pant said, highlighted the need for maintaining a state of constant vigil over the COVID situation.

“Recently a few States/UTs like Kerala have reported a slight upsurge in COVID cases, however no new variant of the virus had been picked up, there are a number of actions that need State Government’s focus,” the Secretary said.

In the advisory, Pant said, there is need to put in place requisite public health measures and other arrangements to minimize risk of increase in transmission of the disease by adherence to maintenance of respiratory hygiene.

The Secretary also asked to ensure effective compliance of the detailed operational guidelines for revised surveillance strategy for COVID-19 as has been shared by the Ministry.

“Ensure monitoring and reporting of district-wise Influenza-like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (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. Ensure adequate testing in all the districts as per COVID-19 testing guidelines and maintaining the recommended share of RT-PCR and Antigen tests,” Pant said.

The Health Secretary also asked to ensure a higher number of RT-PCR tests and send the positive samples for genome sequencing to INSACOG laboratories so as to enable timely detection of new variants, if any.

Among others, Pant also asked to ensure active participation of all public and private health facilities too in the drill being conducted by this Ministry, to take stock of their preparedness and response capacities.