China Covid surge: India keeps guard up ahead of holidays - 10 points

As China is facing yet another Covid wave, India has mobilised all its resources to tackle any fresh wave, especially since Christmas and New Year holidays begin later this week.

Hyderabad: Amid the Covid surge in China, India is keeping its guard up after cases of BF.7 and BF.12 variants were detected in the country. These are the same variants that have wreaked havoc in China. With Christmas and New Year Holidays ahead, the administration is making all efforts to deal with any impending Covid wave.

Here are the top 10 updates in this big story:

1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a high-level meeting on Thursday to review the situation related to COVID-19 in the country. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Home Minister Amit Shah, Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and top officials attended the virtual meeting.
2. In a statement in both houses of Parliament, Mandaviya said two per cent random sampling of international travellers arriving at airports has already started from Thursday to minimise ingress of any new variant in the country. "Our enemy is changing with time and we need to continue our collective fight against it with perseverance and determination," he said.
3. The Karnataka government on Thursday decided to conduct mandatory testing of Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) in the state. The government also decided to make face masks mandatory in closed spaces and airconditioned rooms.
4. Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath also reviewed the COVID-19 situation in the state on Thursday and directed officials to monitor the new coronavirus variant, ramp up testing and conduct genome sequencing of fresh cases. He also asked them to make people aware about wearing masks in crowded public places such as hospitals, buses, railway stations and markets.
5. In view of upcoming festivals and new year celebrations, states have been asked to focus on ensuring effective awareness within the community on adherence to Covid appropriate behavior which includes the use of masks, hand hygiene and respiratory hygiene practices, besides following physical distancing.
6. The new variants were detected in Gujarat and Odisha. Officials in the Gujarat health department said two patients were affected with BF.7 and BF.12 sub-variants two months ago. Both of them have recovered. BF.7 is a sub-lineage of the Omicron variant BA.5, and has the strongest infection ability since it is highly transmissible, has a shorter incubation period, and has a higher capacity to cause reinfection or infect even those vaccinated.
7. On Wednesday, NITI Aayog member (Health) V K Paul noted that only 27-28 per cent of India's eligible population had taken the Covid precaution dose. He advised people to take the jab. Paul was speaking to media after attending the high-level meeting on the latest Covid challenge called by Health Minister Mandaviya.
8. Apart from sticking to Covid appropriate behaviour, the health ministry has advised states to increase the whole genome sequencing of all positive cases for the timely detection of newer variants, if any. India would continue to focus on strategic principles of 'Test-Track-Treat-Vaccination and adherence to Covid appropriate behavior' for management of COVID-19.
9. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Thursday said the Centre is coming up with "excuses" to stop the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra', days after Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya wrote to him to consider suspending the march if Covid-19 protocols could not be followed.
10. While China is struggling, India seems to be in a far more comfortable position. The number of active infections were as low as 3,559 on December 20. Also the variants wreaking havoc in China have been detected in India a few months ago and have not pushed the active infections.