India has put the focus back on Covid-19 as neighbouring China witnesses a fresh surge in infection rate, which is one of the worst outbreaks in the nation in the last two years. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a high-level review meeting on Thursday where he reiterated that the pandemic is “not over yet”, while directing officials to augment the current surveillance measures, especially at international airports. He asked for Covid-19 testing and genome sequencing to be ramped up, and also urged people to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour at all times, especially as the holiday season is near.

Meanwhile, Union health minister Mansuk Mandaviya who also held a review meeting with officials and public health experts on Wednesday gave a statement in Parliament during the ongoing winter session, in which he said the central government is constantly keeping a “close eye” on new Covid-19 variants and random testing of foreign arrivals are also happening at airports.

The current spike in Covid-19 cases in China is happening due to BF.7 variant, which is not a new emergence but a sublineage of Omicron BA.5. Concerns appeared after four cases of BF.7 were detected in India, but experts said there is no need to panic as these patients caught the virus in the past and have since recovered.

India’s average daily Covid-19 case count has been maintaining a downward trend over the past few weeks, falling to 158 in the week ending December 19.