New Covid variant detected in Israel: Health Minister asks officials to maintain high level of alertness

New Delhi, Mar 17: Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has directed officials to maintain a high level of alertness and surveillance, and carry out genomic sequencing aggressively across the country in the wake of a surge in the Covid-19 cases in some European and East Asian countries.

Health Minister's direction came as he chaired a high-level meeting to deliberate on the ongoing COVID vaccination situation and genomic surveillance.

The meeting was attended by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, NTAGI chief Dr N K Arora, NITI Aayog member (Health) V K Paul, ICMR Director-General Dr Balram Bhargava, and AIIMS Director Dr. Randeep Guleria, and Department of Biotechnology Secretary Dr. Rajesh Gokhale.

China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, and some European countries are witnessing a surge in Covid cases.

Tens of millions of people have been placed under lockdown across China.

Two cases of new Covid variant has been detected in Israel. The new strain was detected in two passengers who had arrived at Israel's Ben Gurion airport. The newly recovered strain is a combination of two sub-variants of the Omicron version of the Covid-19 virus.