Centre reviews preparedness to deal with COVID-19 variant Omicron

Union Health Secretary, Rajesh Bhushan chaired a high-level meeting on Tuesday with officials from States and Union Territories to review COVID-19 public health response measures and preparedness amid reports of Omicron variant of COVID-19 in various countries. "Indian Council of Medical Research, DG, Balram Bhargava said that that the 'Omicron' Variant doesn't escape RTPCR and RAT," stated an official release of the Health Ministry.

"Hence, States were advised to ramp up testing for prompt and early identification of any cases. States were advised for target/prioritized testing of passengers from countries not "at-risk", as part of the ramped-up testing by the states. Continued need for further vaccination coverage, adherence to COVID appropriate behavior and need to avoid mass gatherings was stressed upon," stated the release. "Union Health Secretary advised States to not to let their guards down and keep a strict vigil on the international passengers coming to the country through various airports, ports, and land border crossings," the release further stated.

Other than undertaking effective surveillance of international passengers, states were also advised to enhance testing by strengthening the testing infrastructure, effective monitoring of hotspots, regular monitoring of home isolation cases, among various other measures. The meeting was also attended by Dr V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, Rajiv Bansal, Secretary, MoCA, Balram Bhargava, Secretary (Health Research) and DG ICMR, Sujeet K. Singh, Director, NCDC, State Health Secretaries, MDs (NHM), representative from Ministry of External Affairs, Bureau of Immigration (BOI), State Airport Public Health Officials (PHOs) and other officials from the States and Union Territories.

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