Centre Holds Review Meeting with States- UTs Over New Corona Variant Omicron
GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 30th Nov. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Tuesday chaired a high-level meeting with States/UTs to review COVID-19 public health response measures and preparedness amid reports of Omicron variant of COVID19 across various countries in the presence of Dr V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog.
During this, he said that the revised Guidelines and advisories of the Union Health Ministry in view of the new variant of COIVID19 have been shared with the states.
Bhushan 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.
Terming the reported emergence of the new COVID19 variant as a “pandemic within a pandemic”, Dr V K Paul stated that the country is richer in its knowledge of management of COVID19.
He again underlined the continued importance of COVID Appropriate behavior, avoiding large gatherings and ramping up vaccination. Noting the critical role of vaccination as a powerful defense against COVID19, the “Har Ghar Dastak” vaccination campaign has been extended till 31st Dec.
The focus is on 100% first dose coverage, and completing the backlog of second dose vaccination. States have been advised to ramp up the pace and coverage of COVID19 vaccination.
DG, ICMR informed that the OMICRON Variant doesn’t escape RT-PCR and RAT. 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.
The meeting was attended by Rajiv Bansal, Secretary, MoCA, Dr. Balram Bhargava, Secretary (Health Research) & DG ICMR, Dr. 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 (APHOs) and other officials from the states/UTs.
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