CHENNAI: Mock drills are being conducted across the nation today at hospitals to evaluate Covid-19 preparedness.
Ma Subramanian, the health minister for Tamil Nadu, observed a practise emergency response drill for treating Covid-19 on Monday at Rajiv Gandhi General Hospital in Chennai.

The ministry of health SAID, "In Tamil Nadu, there are now no causes for concern as there are 350 or less cases of Covid-19 infection. In contrast to the third wave, we anticipate that the fourth wave will have a minor impact." A Covid-19 readiness exercise is currently taking place at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Jhajjar, Haryana (AIIMS).

Mansukh Mandaviya, who presided over a review conference with the states on Friday, advised them to examine the state of their health preparation with district administrations and health officials and to perform mock exercises of all hospital infrastructure on April 10 and 11.

Mandaviya asked states to monitor trends in cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI), send enough samples for COVID-19 and influenza testing, and scale up whole genome sequencing of positive samples in order to identify new hotspots.  23 states and UTs were found to have average tests per million that were lower than the national average.

"Regardless of the new COVID variants, the tried-and-true COVID management strategy of "Test, Track, Treat, Vaccinate, and Adherence to COVID Appropriate Behaviour" is still in place. He claimed that doing so will make it easier to implement suitable public health measures "said Mandaviya.

States and UTs were also urged to swiftly increase the pace of testing from the existing rate of 100 tests per million, as of the week ending 7th April, and further advised to enhance the share of RT-PCR in tests, according to the union health ministry.

According to a press release from the ministry, "States and UTs were briefed that India has been witnessing a steady increase in COVID-19 cases with average daily cases rising to 4,188 in the week ending April 7 from 571 in the week ending March 17, and weekly positivity up to 3.02 per cent in the week ending April 7."

"States and UTs were also told that six more variants are being monitored, in addition to the one variant of interest (VOI) that WHO is now intensively watching, XBB.1.5 (BQ.1, BA.2.75, CH.1.1, XBB, XBF and XBB.1.16). It was emphasised that although while Omicron and its sub-lineages are still the most common variant, most of the assigned variants had negligible to negligible differences in terms of disease severity, transmissibility, or immune evasion. From 21.6 percent in February to 35.8 percent in March, XBB.1.16 prevalence increased. Yet, there hasn't been any information indicating a rise in hospitalisation or fatality. "

Also, while India has attained primary immunisation coverage rates of over 90%, precaution dose coverage rates are quite low.

According to the ministry, eight states are reporting a high number of Covid cases in India, with 10 or more districts in Kerala, Maharashtra, and Delhi reporting more than 10% positivity and over 5 districts in Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Haryana reporting more than 5% positivity.