Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 25: Amidst increasing threats of Covid-19 surge and a possible third wave, the centre has deployed multi-disciplinary teams in 10 States which are reporting either an increasing number of COVID-19 cases including Omicron variant or are recording a slow pace of vaccination.
According to a memorandum issued by the Union Health Ministry on Saturday, the 10 states included Punjab and Uttar Pradesh which are among the five states due to go to polls within the next two months. The eight other states where the central teams have been deployed included Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Mizoram, Karnataka, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.
“In view of rapid surge in cases and deaths because of COVID-19, as reported by various news channels, the state governments, and noted in internal reviews, it has been seen that the number of Omicron cases has emerged in some States.
“It has also been observed that the pace of COVID-19 vaccination in these states is less than the national average. In wake of this situation, a decision has been taken to deploy multi-disciplinary central teams to 10 identified states some of which are either reporting increasing number of Omicron and COVID-19 cases or slow vaccination pace to aid the efforts of the state and district administration for management of COVID-19,” the memorandum stated.
These teams will be stationed in the states for three to five days, and they will work along with the state health authorities, it said. The teams will specifically look into areas of contact-tracing, including surveillance and containment operations, and COVID-19 testing, including sending of adequate samples from clusters to the INSACOG network for genome sequencing, the memo stated.
They will also look into enforcement of Covid-appropriate behaviour, availability of hospital beds, sufficient logistics, including ambulances, ventilators, and medical oxygen, and the COVID-19 vaccination progress. The state-level central teams will assess the situation, suggest remedial actions and submit a report every evening by 7 pm on public health activities being undertaken, besides submitting the same to the state governments, the memo stated.
Also on the teams’ review checklist will be genome sequencing of samples to identify cases of the Omicron strain – which the World Health Organization has warned is significantly more transmissible than the Delta variant that triggered the second wave of infections in the country.
The states identified in the latest order include five with the highest active caseloads – Kerala (26,265), Maharashtra (12,108), Bengal (7,466), Karnataka (7,280) and Tamil Nadu (6,798). States with relatively low active caseloads – Mizoram (1,498), Bihar (79) and Jharkhand (273) – instead have red flags over vaccination rates amid fears Omicron is more resistant to vaccines.
Bengal, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab and Mizoram were also on a list of states warned by the centre last month over slow vaccination rates; “a decrease in testing would undermine the actual infection spread within the community,” the Health Secretary told state officials then.
The Union Health Ministry said on Saturday that India’s overall Omicron caseload had jumped to 415 – it was 385 on Friday evening, after having crossed 200 on Tuesday and 100 eight days ago. Maharashtra has recorded the highest number of the new variant cases, at 108, followed by Delhi with 79, Gujarat 43, Telangana 38, Kerala 37 and Tamil Nadu 34, all have worryingly high Omicron caseloads. In addition, Bengal has three and poll-bound UP two.
On Wednesday the Health Ministry wrote to all states and UTs to urge them to step up efforts to track and contain Omicron, and to use measures like night curfews and extensive testing to do so. Earlier on Saturday morning the Health Ministry said 7,189 new COVID-19 cases had been detected In the past 24 hours, with the biggest addition to active caseloads – 530 cases – from Maharashtra.
Only on Friday the Union Health Ministry had cautioned about the world-wide surge in Covid-19 and urged people to not lower their guard. It warned that the Omicron has a higher risk of transmission within the households as compared to Delta. At least nine among 10 persons getting infected by the highly transmissible Omicron variant are fully vaccinated, an analysis of 183 Omicron cases in India had revealed. Therefore, the Centre highlighted that vaccine alone was not sufficient, and reminded the use of masks and surveillance to break the chain of transmission.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has decided to lift the travel restrictions on eight southern African countries that it imposed to try to blunt the spread of the Omicron variant, the White House announced on Friday. The variant, which was first detected by scientists in South Africa, has since spread around the world. The World Health Organization and leaders in southern Africa criticized the travel ban as ineffective and unfairly damaging to local economies. The November 29 ban barred nearly all non-U.S. citizens who had recently been in South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Namibia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The restrictions will be lifted on New Year’s Eve.