States told to step up Covid vigil, accelerate vaccination coverage

The Centre has called upon states reporting a surge in Covid cases in the past few weeks to step up vigil, focus on sentinel surveillance for early detection and reporting of cases, and strictly monitor the clinical profile of hospitalised cases. States have also been asked to ramp up testing and increase the share of RTPCR tests. Noting that the uptake in second and precaution doses in many states reporting the present surge was low, they…