India tells 7 states to ensure adequate testing, COVID-19 appropriate behavior

People wait in a queue to interact with their relatives through a video phone facility set up by a COVID 19 help desk outside a hospital, in New Delhi, India, July 3, 2020. MANISH SWARUP AP NEW DELHI SINGAPORE YANGON - India's federal health ministry wrote on Saturday to seven states, asking them to ensure adequate testing, promote COVID 19 appropriate behavior and increase the pace of vaccination to contain the ongoing increase in cases.

The letter from federal health secretary Rajesh Bhushan has been sent to Delhi, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Telangana, warning that the upcoming festivals and mass congregations in different parts of the country could potentially facilitate the transmission of infectious diseases, including COVID - 19.

It is important to ensure adequate testing is undertaken in all districts of the state while maintaining the recommended share of RT-PCR and antigen tests. The states must closely monitor districts with higher cases, positivity rates and clusters to prevent the spread of infection and effective case management, the letter was quoted by local media as saying.

In his letter to the Delhi government, Bhushan said that the national capital has been reporting high daily new cases of 811 cases for the past month, with a high of 2,202 new cases reported on Aug 5.

Bhushan stressed that genome sequencing of prescribed samples of international passengers as well as collection of samples from sentinel sites and local cluster of new COVID 19 cases are equally important and that samples must be sent promptly by the states to the designated lab of Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics INSACOG network for genome sequencing.

The states were also advised to follow the five-fold strategy of testing, tracking, treatment, vaccination and adherence to COVID 19 appropriate behavior.

On Saturday morning, the federal health ministry reported 19,406 new cases of COVID 19 and 49 related deaths during the past 24 hours.

An elderly resident arrives in Singapore to test at a temporary swab center set up at the void deck area of a public housing block after a few positive COVID 19 cases were detected in the building, on May 21, 2021, after a few positive COVID 19 cases were detected in the building. ROSLAN RAHMAN AFP Singapore reported 5,633 new cases of COVID 19 on Saturday, bringing the total tally to 1,754, 777.

According to statistics released by the Ministry of Health, 613 cases were detected through PCR polymerase chain reaction tests and 5,020 through ART antigen rapid test tests.

There were 563 local transmissions and 50 imported cases among the PCR cases. There were 4,863 local transmissions and 157 imported cases among the ART cases with mild symptoms and assessed to be of low risk.

There are currently 626 cases in hospitals, with 16 cases in intensive care units.

The ministry said that there were two more deaths from COVID-19 on Saturday, bringing the total death toll to 1,536.

Myanmar has had no new COVID 19 deaths over the past 122 days, the longest stretch without fatalities from the virus since the start of the epidemic, the Ministry of Health said on Saturday.

The death toll from COVID 19 in the country remained unchanged since April 7th this year, and the country's death toll was 19,434, according to official data.

The country logged 20 new cases of COVID 19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the tally to 614,190, the ministry said.

The ministry said that it tested 6,131 people for COVID 19 in the past 24 hours, and the daily positivity rate was 0.33 percent.

More than 15 patients have been recovered and discharged from the hospital in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of recoveries to 592,985.