Delhi: The Central Government has told the states to send sewage samples to all sentinel sites that currently carry out surveillance of poliovirus, Indian Express reported, adding that the direction comes in wake of the possibility of a new Covid-19 variant triggering a fresh surge in cases.
“This is among the key strategies that have been communicated to the states last week, even as a few urban centres in the country have witnessed an increase in the Covid-19 cases,” reads the report by Indian Express.
The report says that India’s active caseload stands at 11,558. While the country’s weekly positivity rate stands at 0.27%, Delhi reported a positivity rate of 5.33% on Saturday.
“At the meeting with the states, the Centre said “there was no cause for concern” as the majority of cases continued to be linked to the highly transmissible Omicron BA.2, which drove the third wave. However, surveillance and monitoring of a new variant would remain the top priority to detect the emergence of the new clusters, sources told The Indian Express,” the report claims.
