Coronavirus: India urges states to ramp up testing as Covid-19 cases climb
- The federal government is asking states to dramatically increase testing after seeing the highest daily case count since September
- India recorded more than 44.7 million cases of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic 3 years ago, highest after the US and China
India’s federal government asked states to identify emergency hotspots and ramp up-testing for Covid-19, after the country recorded its highest daily case count since September, a Reuters tally showed on Friday.
There were 6,050 new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, the federal health ministry said on Friday, continuing a sharp upwards trend since a lull last year.
At a meeting to review the degree to which the states are prepared, health minister Mansukh Mandaviya asked them to ramp up genome testing and conduct mock drills in hospitals, a government statement said.
Daily new cases have nearly tripled from around 2,000 at the end of March.
The prevalence of XBB. 1.16, classified as a variant of interest by the World Health Organization, increased from 21.6 per cent in February to 35.8 per cent in March, the health ministry said, adding there that was no evidence of an increase in hospitalisations or deaths.
