Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 21 (IANS): Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday asked all the people to be alert and cautious in the wake of several countries reporting a resurgence of Covid cases.

"With the Centre pointing out the outbreak of the virus in a few countries, we are also going on a high alert and the Health Minister here is meeting up with the rapid response team of the department. Hence, all the lessons that we learned tackling Covid in the past should now put into practice again.

"The saving grace is Kerala at present is not reporting many fresh cases, but we must ensure that all precautions should be taken when Covid-like symptoms like cold and cough surface," Vijayan said.

This fresh caution comes at a time when people in Kerala - like elsewhere in the country - have, for all practical purposes, discarded face masks, in a return to the pre-Covid era.

One reason why Vijayan decided to issue a caution is because earlier in the day after reviewing the Covid situation in the country, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said that the pandemic is not over yet, but "we are prepared to manage any situation".

Taking to Twitter, Mandaviya said: "In view of the rising cases of Covid19 in some countries, reviewed the situation with experts and officials today".

"Covid is not over yet. I have directed all concerned to be alert and strengthen surveillance. We are prepared to manage any situation".

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry has also written to the states to ramp up the whole genome sequencing of positive cases to track the new Covid variant.

In the letter on Tuesday, the Ministry said: "In view of the sudden spurt of cases being witnessed in Japan, the US, South Korea, Brazil and China, it is essential to gear up the whole genome sequencing of positive case samples to track the variants through Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium network".