New Delhi - The Union Health Minister of India, Mansukh Mandaviya, will oversee a nationwide mock drill to assess hospital preparedness for the rising number of Covid-19 cases on April 10 and 11. The drill will involve both public and private facilities, and state health ministers have been advised to review hospital preparedness with district administrations and health officials on April 8 and 9. Mandaviya stressed the need to identify emergency hotspots, ramp up testing and vaccination, and ensure the readiness of hospital infrastructure.

Additionally, he emphasized the importance of enhancing genome sequencing, creating awareness about Covid-appropriate behavior, and increasing testing rates. The World Health Organization is closely tracking a variant of interest (VOI), XBB.1.5, and six other variants are under monitoring. However, most of the assigned variants have little or no significant transmissibility, disease severity or immune escape. The prevalence of XBB.1.16 has increased from 21.6 per cent in February to 35.8 per cent in March, but no evidence of an increase in hospitalization or mortality has been reported.

During the meeting, it was noted that 23 states and union territories in India had average tests per million below the national average. In response, Mandaviya reiterated the importance of the five-fold strategy of 'Test-Track-Treat-Vaccinate and adherence to Covid-Appropriate Behaviour' as the tested strategy for Covid management, regardless of the new variants. He advised states and union territories to increase the rate of testing from 100 tests per million as of the week ending April 7 and to increase the share of RT-PCR in tests.