NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed that monitoring should be strengthened in the context of India detecting the sub-variant BF.7 that led to the recent surge of Covid cases in China. Modi demanded that people should remain alert and everyone should wear masks. The decision to strengthen monitoring was taken in a high-level meeting chaired by the Prime Minister.

States have been directed to ensure facilities in hospitals. The elderly and those with comorbidities, who have not yet received the preventive doses of the COVID vaccine, should be ready to take it. Modi also directed that preventive measures, including the wearing of masks, should be mandatory. Screening should be strengthened at international airports. The price of essential medicines should be monitored. The number of covid tests should be increased. More importance should be given to genetic sequencing, Modi added.