Step up Covid-19 testing and genome sequencing: Mansukh Mandaviya

With the country reporting over 12,000 daily fresh cases of Covid-19, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday asked officials to monitor the rate of hospitalisation and focus on testing, surveillance and whole genome sequencing of positive samples.

India reported 13,313 new cases in the last 24 hours and the active caseload currently stands at 83,990. The weekly positivity rate is presently at 2.81 per cent.

In a review meeting with key experts, Mandaviya stressed on the need to focus on districts reporting high case positivity and undertake adequate testing, with a higher proportion of RT-PCR. Principal Scientific Advisor to the government Ajay K Sood; Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Rajesh Gokhale; Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research Balram Bhargava;