New Delhi: Amid Omicron variant of COVID-19, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has directed all States/UTs to enforce intensive containment and active surveillance measures and also increase coverage of vaccination.
“lt is essential that the disease surveillance network in the country is geared up for rigorous follow up of all international travellers from all countries especially countries designated as “At Risk”,” the government said.
“ln the absence of sufficient testing, it is extremely difficult to determine the true level of infection spread. States must strengthen the testing infrastructure and strictly implement the testing guidelines,” the ministry said.
“States should continue monitoring Covi hotspots, areas where recent cluster of positive cases have emerged,” the ministry wrote adding that, in all such “hotspots”, saturation testing and sending of positive samples quickly for genome sequencing to designated INSACOG Labs must be ensured.
The new variant was first detected in South Africa, Botswana, Hong Kong and then UK, Australia, Czech Republic, Italy, Germany, Isreal, the Netherlands etc.
