Bhubaneswar: With the World Health Organization (WHO) terming the new variant of Covid-19 Omicron as a Variant of Concern, the State Government has alerted District Collectors.
The variant which has been detected in South Africa, Botswana and Hong Kong has now forced several countries including India to initiate precautionary measures to prevent its spread.
Accordingly, the Centre has advised all States, Union Territories for conducting screening of passengers coming from the countries where the new Covid-19 variant has been detected.
The Odisha government has also issued an advisory to the Collectors asking them to focus on strategy of testing-tracking-treatment- vaccination-enforcement of Covid appropriate behavior and containment measures, said director, Public Health, Niranjan Mishra here Saturday.
“The foreign travelers who will test positive will be isolated and their samples will be sent for genome sequencing to find out whether the new sub-variant is there or not,” said Mishra.
Following the detection of a large number of Covid-19 cases in educational institutions in different parts of the State, the Government has asked the collectors for constant and close surveillance over hostels, schools, colleges and other congregations.
The Health Department has instructed the District Administrations and Municipal authorities to discourage students with mildest of symptoms from attending the classes, regular sensitization of classrooms etc.
The Government has also directed the collectors for strict enforcement of Covid appropriate behavior in institutions and also in public places.
Besides, the district administrations have been told to intensify the door to door campaign for vaccination, involving all field functionaries, PRI members, SHGs etc.
Meanwhile, the Covid tally in Odisha surged to10,48,492 with the detection of 264 more cases in the past 24 hours. Three more Covid deaths, one each from Jharsuguda, Kalahandi and Bolangir district, were reported in the state taking the total fatalities to 8406.