Union Govt Advises 9 States To Ramp Up COVID-19 Testing To Contain Transmission

New Delhi: The Union government on Friday advised nine states — Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Assam to urgently ramp up COVID-19 testing, strictly implement containment plan, augment health infrastructure and ensure effective clinical management.

In view of a spurt in coronavirus cases, the Union Cabinet Secretary chaired a high-level virtual meeting with Chief Secretaries and Health Secretaries of the nine States.

Reviewing these states’ COVID response strategy in detail, the nine states were advised to ramp up testing with special focus on containment zones.

Areas of concern with respect to low testing in certain states was highlighted. It was reiterated that sustained and aggressive testing is crucial for early identification of cases and to prevent spread of the infection.

The Cabinet Secretary stressed on the need for prompt and proper delineation of containment zones as per the guidelines of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, intensive contact tracing and house-to-house active case search within the containment zones to effectively break the chain of transmission.

Buffer Zones to be identified outside the Containment Zones and continued surveillance of SARI/ILI cases needs to be undertaken.