Bengal to continue Covid surveillance activity, no cases so far: Official

The West Bengal Health Department will continue its surveillance of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) cases, in accordance with central guidelines, amid an uptick in Covid-19 cases in the country, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Representatives of the department participated in a high-level review meeting with states chaired by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya earlier in the day.

"We will continue our surveillance activity as per the guidelines of the health ministry. At present, there is not a single Covid-19 case in our state. However, we are ready with the infrastructure," the official told PTI.

In the meeting, Mandaviya reiterated that Covid was not over yet and urged the states to monitor emerging cases, symptoms and case severity to plan appropriate public health response.

Mandaviya asked all the states to remain alert, increase surveillance and ensure adequate stock of medicines, oxygen cylinders and concentrators, ventilators and vaccines.

A rise in daily positivity rate has been observed in a few states like Kerala, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Karnataka.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is working on genome sequencing of the new JN.1 variant of SARS-CoV-2, Union Health Ministry officials said on Wednesday.

Twenty-one cases of Covid-19 sub-variant JN.1 have been detected across the country till now, NITI Aayog member (health) Dr V K Paul said.

JN.1 (BA.2.86.1.1) variant emerged in late 2023 and is a descendant of the BA.2.86 lineage (Pirola) of SARS-CoV-2.