New Delhi: The Center on Tuesday asked states and union territories to step up COVID-19 testing in a strategic manner to track the spread of the pandemic.
In a letter to the states and union territories, the Union Health Ministry said, testing remains an important component of the framework. It is seen from the data available on the ICMR portal that there has been a decline in testing in many states and union territories.
In a letter to the states and union territories, Aarti Ahuja, Additional Secretary in the Union Health Ministry, advised them to pay immediate attention to this aspect and step up testing in a strategic manner keeping in mind the trend of case positivity in specific areas.
He highlighted that Omicron is currently spreading across the country.
He wrote in the letter that the basic objective in all the advisories issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is speedy isolation and early detection of cases.
He said, the disease can be prevented from progressing to the severe category through strategic screening in people who are at high risk and who are vulnerable, as well as in areas where the spread is expected to be high.
He said that the advisory needs to be read in line with the earlier guidelines and advisories of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, which recommended that strategic and focused screening of people who are vulnerable and densely populated should be done. live in areas.
The letter further said, to ensure that an effective track of the spread of the pandemic is kept and immediate citizen centric action initiated, it is necessary to ramp up testing on all States and Union Territories.
first published:Jan. 18, 2022, 8:31 p.m.
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