With the Omicron variant of the coronavirus ringing alarm bells, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy ordered that the officials should again enforce the guidelines related to wearing of face masks and only RT-PCR tests be done in order to achieve accurate results.
Taking stock of the prevalence of COVID-19 and the precautions to be taken against the emerging variant, on Monday, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said mock drills should be performed at oxygen plants in all the government hospitals and special medical teams posted in the international airports at Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore to screen passengers travelling to Andhra Pradesh.
Officials told the Chief Minister that 15% of the samples were being sent to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad every day to get genome sequencing done and a laboratory equipped with that facility would be soon coming up in Vijayawada.
Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy ordered that vaccination should be intensified and fever surveys done at regular intervals to detect COVID cases and then check if the Omicron variant forayed into the State.
As recommended by the Central government, people coming from South Africa, Botswana and Hong Kong among a total 12 countries were being closely watched to ensure that the new variant which was highly transmissible, did not gain a foothold, the officials said.
Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Health Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas, Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma and others were present.
